English twitter: @kidethnic
KID ETHNIC IS WRITTEN BY:
saleem reshamwla
who is fresh of the boat (that circled the globe).
He makes crazy stuff:
Zombie Rap Videos, Truly Strange Geographic Education Flicks, Micro-Documentaries About Chinese Cell Phone Markets...kidethnic@gmail.com
日本語のtwitter: @masalasoccer
ALSO BY KID ETHNIC:
SEAWEED BREAKFAST
A collection of stories about Japan written while part of the National Geographic Glimpse Correspondents' Training Program.
The Whiteboard Videos
Music+Whiteboard Markers+Friends=Good ways to spend weekends
The Alpaca Song
I wrote and recorded this for you. Because you <em>need</em> a song about alpacas, don’t you?
The Annual Kid Ethnic Valentine
Because I love you so much.
Twitter
I twitter infrequently. But hope we can stay friends.
100JapaneseThings
A collaborative site to help folks (and each other) find Japanese stuff.
On the Odd Feelings Surrounding Jewtown, India (A Place Recently Visited) · 13 February 08
A long time ago, a bunch of Jewish folk in Southern India got together and formed…
Yes, that’s the name of the town, at least now.
It’s a nice little place, which, according to this 1893 account by an English-speaking traveler, runs “about 1/3rd of a mile in length, and is situated close to the banks of the backwater, commencing from the southern wall of the Rajah’s Palace, and terminating at a stream which divides it from the Arab and Moplah sailors.”
Now, when I showed this photo to some friends on flickr, one said:
hmmm, is it wrong that I find that amusing?!
Somehow compared to say, ‘China Town’, Jew Town just sounds wrong, sounds rather un-PC.
True.
And now, A QUICK THEORY:
I think it’s because ‘Jew’, unlike many other religious/ethnic group titles, is now commonly used as a noun for people but NOT used as an adjective (since we have ‘Jewish’).
For example:
He is a Christian. = Ok.
That is a Christian house. = Also okay.
BUT:
He is a Jew. = Ok.
That is a Jew house. = Sounds odd. (Borat, of course, got miles out of this awkward phrasing.)
So ‘Jewtown’ sounds strange, whereas ‘Christiantown’ or ‘Muslimtown’ would be only a touch unusual.
In general:
ethnic adjective+‘town’= Ok.
Chinesetown=A touch unusual, but ok.
Big-place-name +‘town’ is also ok.
For example:
Chinatown=Ok, of course.
Israeltown= Might sound a little theme park-ish, but otherwise fine.
But noun-for-a-group-of-people+‘town’ is not so hot.
Chinesepeopletown or Chinesepersontown or (to state the obvious) Chinamantown= Not so much.
I might be off here. Can anyone think of any exceptions?
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PHOTO: Kid Apple Tobacco and the Eastern Clouds PLUS: A brief digression involving stomach pain. | Music Video: On the Varied and Shifting Personality of An Excellent Tripod