A beautiful English word

Humour takes a bit of intelligence to understand or to present, so I respect comedians who challenge and do their act not in their native language.

I recently found a movie on Youtube of a Japanese comedian, Yuriko Kotani, doing her acts in England. She makes good use of her foreign identity and her slow Japanese accented English. The main theme of her humour is the cultural gap she feels living in in the British society, and I can relate to her completely.

And she talks of a beautiful English word she loves, "-ish".

Yes, as she says, we don't have this word in Japanese. And although you do hear it used by some Americans, it is not like the way the British use it.

'Say, we meet one-ish?'

-'Is he nice?'
-'...Hmm,  ish.'

Isn't it nice.
It does not rigidly determine or define, the speaker's responsibility of his / her statement is lightened, the listener's assessment towards the matter can be taken into consideration.

It leaves the matter vague, it is in a way being irresponsible to your speech, but looking from another view, it is allowing the space for the judgement of the person you are talking to, a form of respect.

I consider it shows a very British attitude.

English humour

It takes a little intelligence to have and enjoy sense of humour; you need to grasp and look ahead of the present situation, and then skillfully betray the expected outcome. I am especially fan of the sarcasm and the cynical sense of humour of the English people.

Many years ago when I was travelling round England, I visited the great hall of Christ Church College in Oxford. It was in the days when "Harry Potter" was not even born and had not invaded the old town. It was famous for the beautiful old college buildings and "Alice in Wonderland".

I think I was the only visitor in the hall (yes, Harry was not born yet), and the guide of the hall started a little chat with me explaining the details of the room - the windows, the paintings, the high table, the long table of the students, and in those days, the long bench type seats (this picture was taken in 2011). The guide seemed very gentle, nice old man, very proud of and faithful to his job.

The guide told me about a group of high school students from the U.S.A. who came to study and stay on campus one summer. His soft gentle face turned a little sour.

"Those American children, they are really loud and noisy, and when they come here for their meals, they can't make up their mind to eat or to talk. They shout over the table to their friends seats away and burst our laughing, and you know, because these benches don't have the backrests, when they laugh their heads off the whole lot on the same bench fall over. "

I imagined about 4 high school boys flipping off their bench and landing on the floor. It must be really painful on the head landing on the hard floor.

"And they make a great mess on the floor, those ruddy boys. It chips off the corners of the bench, makes scratches on the floor, food scattered and the plates broken."

The guide was not concerned if the boys were hurt or not, he was concerned about the damage caused to the great hall and its furnishings.

And after saying that, he chuckled.
He was very very faithful to his job.