This is a story about an international couple raising and home educating three young boys in Japan, while dealing with climate, cultural, and personal challenges. These pages are about pretty much anything and everything all guided by our family motto, Taking Chances, Making Changes, Being Happy. Thank you very much for joining us on our ongoing adventure.

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Comedy

I decided to make this section for a number of reasons the least of which is the importance of laughter. We focused on a lot of comedy as 2020 quickly turned into a nightmare thanks to Covid-19. Although there were no cases on our little island, we threw ourselves into isolation anyway, just in case. This meant no visits to the most popular beaches, very few house parties with friends, and pretty much every event being cancelled. Needless to say, we needed something to laugh at....every day.

I grew up watching some of the best stand up comedians of all time. Famous names like Rodney Dangerfield, Freddie Prinze, John Belushi, David Brenner, and Steve Martin, just to name a few. Comedy and laughter were always a part of my family and the tradition continues with my wife and three boys.
"The human race has one really effective weapon, and that is laughter"
Mark Twain
Something to Think About

These days are being spent going though hundreds of files of information I collected over the years to be used on my Fun Easy English site. A few of these really got me thinking and I thought you guys might like them too. Gosh, English certainly is a funny language.

"A little treat for our regular viewers"
James Corden
  • If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?
  • If people from Poland are called "Poles," why aren't people from Holland called "Holes?
  • "When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
  • Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?
  • Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
  • If horrific means to make horrible, does terrific mean to make terrible?
  • Why isn't 11 pronounced onety one?
  • Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist, but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?
  • If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?
  • Why do women wear evening gowns to nightclubs? Shouldn't they be wearing night gowns?
  • If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?
  • When someone asks you, "A penny for your thoughts," and you put your two cents in, what happens to the other penny?
  • Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
  • Why do croutons come in airtight packages? It's just stale bread to begin with.
  • If you mixed vodka with orange juice and milk of magnesia, would you get a Philips Screwdriver?
  • Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a "whack"?
  • "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?
  • If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners depressed?
  • Why is it that if someone tells you that there are 1 billion stars in the universe you will believe them, but if they tell you that a wall has wet paint you will have to touch it to be sure.
Why English is Difficult to Learn

I get a lot of messages in Facebook and comments on my Fun Easy English site from students wanting to know why English is so difficult to learn. Compared to other languages, English really is a bitch, mostly due to the exceptions to rules, and the huge number of inconsistencies. Consider the following examples from the perspective of someone learning English as a second language and you can easily understand why the world struggles with this crazy language.
  • The bandage was wound around the wound.
  • The farm was used to produce produce.
  • The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.
  • We must polish the Polish furniture.
  • He could lead if he would get the lead out.
  • The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.
  • Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to present the present.
  • A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.
  • When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.
  • I did not object to the object.
  • The insurance was invalid for the invalid.
  • There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.
  • They were too close to the door to close it.
  • The buck does funny things when the does are present.
  • A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.
  • To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.
  • The wind was too strong to wind the sail.
  • After a number of injections my jaw got number.
  • Upon seeing the tear in the painting I shed a tear.
  • I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.
  • How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?
  • What else is strange about the English language? Well, how about the fact that:
  • there is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburger.
  • there is no apple or pine in pineapple.
  • English muffins weren't invented in England.
  • French fries weren't invented in France.
  • sweetmeats are candies and not meat.
  • sweetbreads are meats, but aren't sweet.
  • quicksand can work slowly.
  • boxing rings are square.
  • a guinea pig is not from Guinea and is not a pig.
  • writers write, but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce, and hammers don't ham.
  • the plural of tooth is teeth, but the plural of booth isn't beeth.
  • its one goose and 2 geese, but not one moose and 2 meese.
  • you can make amends but not one amend.
  • you comb through annals of history but never a single annal.
  • teachers have taught, but preachers have never praught.
  • we recite at a play and play at a recital.
  • we park on driveways and drive on parkways.
  • a house can burn up as it burns down.
  • we fill in a form by filling it out.
  • an alarm clock "goes off" by going on.
  • the human race isn't a race at all.
  • we wind up a watch to get it started, but when we wind up an essay, we end it.
  • a wise man and a wise guy are opposites.
  • overlook and oversee are opposites.
  • quite a lot and quite a few are the same.
  • vegetarians dine on vegetables, but humanitarians do not dine on humans.
  • Some things are only mentioned when something is missing, not when it is there -- so you never hear of:
  • a horseful carriage.
  • a strapful gown.
  • a sung hero.
  • requited love.
  • a combobulated, gruntled, ruly, or peccable person.
  • And more
  • Have you ever heard someone say "That's the best thing since sliced bread"? Well, what was the best thing before sliced bread?
  • Why is it called a TV "set" if there's only one?
  • Why does your nose run and your feet smell?
  • Why does "cleave" mean both split apart and stick together?
  • Why is it whether you sit down or sit up, the results are the same?
  • Why is it called a "building" when it's already built?
  • Why do they call them "apartments" when they are all stuck together?
  • How can you "draw a blank"?
  • Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllable"?
  • Why do 'tug' boats push their barges?
  • Why are stadium seating areas called 'stands' when they're made for sitting?
  • Why do 'slow down' and 'slow up' mean the same thing?
  • Why is it when two planes almost collide it's called a 'near miss'. Shouldn't it be called a 'near hit'?
  • Why are there Interstate Highways in Hawaii?
  • Why do light switches say on/off? When it's on you can see it's on, when it's off you can't see it to read it.
  • Why do 'fat chance' and 'slim chance' mean the same thing?
  • Ever notice that PRICE and WORTH mean about the same thing, but priceless and worthless are opposites?
  • Why is it when you transport something by car it's called a shipment, and when you transport something by ship it's called cargo?
  • English is very strange indeed: (a few of these repeat from the list above)
  • Did you know that "verb" is a noun?
  • How can you look up words in a dictionary if you can't spell them?
  • If a word is misspelled in a dictionary, how would we ever know?
  • If two mouses are mice and two louses are lice, why aren't two houses hice?
  • If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?
  • If you wrote a letter, perhaps you bote your tongue?
  • If you've read a book, you can reread it. But wouldn't this also mean that you would have to "member" somebody in order to remember them?
  • Is it a coincidence that the only 15 letter word that can be spelled without repeating a letter is uncopyrightable?
  • Is there another word for a synonym?
  • Shouldn't there be a shorter word for "monosyllabic"?
  • What is another word for "thesaurus"?
  • Where do swear words come from?
  • Why can't you make another word using all the letters in "anagram"?
  • Why do fat chance and slim chance mean the same thing?
  • Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?
  • Why do people use the word "irregardless"?
  • Why do some people type "cool" as "kewl?"
  • Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?
  • Why do we say something's out of order when its broken but we never say in of order when it works?
  • Why does "cleave" mean both split apart and stick together?
  • Why does "slow down" and "slow up" mean the same thing?
  • Why does flammable and inflammable mean the same thing?
  • Why does X stand for a kiss and O stand for a hug?
  • Why doesn't "onomatopoeia" sound like what it is?
  • Why don't we say "why" instead of "how come"?
  • Why is "crazy man" an insult, while to insert a comma and say "Crazy, man!" is a compliment?
  • Why are a wise man and wise guy opposites?
  • Why is abbreviation such a long word?
  • Why is dyslexic so hard to spell?
  • Why is it so hard to remember how to spell MNEMONIC?
  • Why is it that no word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or purple?
  • Why is it that the word "gullible" isn't in the dictionary?
  • Why is it that we recite at a play and play at a recital?
  • Why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't groce and hammers don't ham?
  • Why is the alphabet in that order? Is it because of that song?
  • Why is the plural of goose-geese, and not the plural of moose-meese?
  • Why isn't "palindrome" spelled the same way backwards?
  • Why isn't phonetic spelled the way it sounds?