in article ZQh2d.3032$hv6.2388@newssvr15.news.prodigy.com, Musashi at
Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp wrote on 9/16/04 7:56 AM:

> 
> "Shez" <UseReplyAddress@nospam.uk.invalid> wrote in message
> news:ghLW9WMRVJSBFwYz@zerex.nospam.co.uk...
>> In the faraway land of sci.lang.japan, Musashi <Miyamoto@Hosokawa.co.jp>
>> said:
>>>> Hmm. So you're saying that the British are not Europeans?
>>> 
>>> Yes and No. If we are speaking strictly in a geographical sense, then
>>> obviously British are
>>> Europeans. But if we are talking about "how a people or nation perceives
> and
>>> calls themselves"
>>> then I have met plenty of British people who rather pride themselves in
>>> being "British or English"
>>> and consider themselves seperate from those on the "continent". Perhaps
> this
>>> has somtehign to
>>> do with being an island country, in which case it is understandable that
> a
>>> similar type of mentality
>>> would have developed in Japan.
>> 
>> Yes, Britain and Japan are very much alike in this respect, and indeed
>> in many aspects of their historical relations with our continental
>> neighbours - wars, invasions, cultural & linguistic influences (e.g. the
>> adoption of the Roman alphabet in Britain and Kanji in Japan, along with
>> a lot of loan words from what was otherwise an unrelated language). Both
>> were even saved from invasion by a divine wind that dispersed an
>> invading fleet, IIRC.
>> 
> 
> Finally someone who understands this.
> I've never had much reception to this idea from
> my American friends.
> 
Really? Well, I feel gratified that I'm doing something that someone might
approve of, because every year in my high school introductory Japanese
class, when I am giving a quick overview of the Japanese writing system, I
point out the intriguing similarities in how the English and the Japanese
got readin' and writin' and the other similarities as well.
---
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