Welcome to E-com Monthly Intro to American culture.
I'm Marcellus.
And I'm Heather.
And I'm @!#$ Mr. Turkey.
Why do we have this turkey here?
Well, it's almost Thanksgiving time.
That's right, Thanksgiving.
Thanksgiving is a holiday that falls on the fourth Thursday of November.
That's right and it's to celeb-wha? What is it to celebrate, Marcellus?
Well, Thanksgiving is a time to celebrate your feeling of being thankful for the things that you have in your life.
For being thankful for having a good family.
For being thankful for having enough food to eat.
For being thankful for having a nice, warm place to live.
Yeah, and I think it, it originated back in the day when the first Americans,
or I guess they were Europeans at the time,
came to America and they had a very difficult time to live.
So, the Native Americans helped them to learn how to farm certain items and how to get by through the first winter.
And so, they had a big feast to thank the Native Americans for helping them.
And also to thank God, because they were very religious people back then.
Right.
We call them pilgrims, actually, and if you go to America around Thanksgiving time,
you'll see pictures everywhere of this guy, the turkey, and also these guys with these big, black hats and these kind of funny costumes.
Those guys are pilgrims and they are the original Ameri-, original Europeans who came to America.
That's right.
Well, are you ready?
Let's begin.
Alright, we're back and today, we're going to talk about games we used to play in childhood in America.
Alright, so we have a couple games we chose that are maybe easily explained to you, that were very popular.
One is tag.
The other one is hide-and-seek.
And the last one is Mother, may I?
Uh-huh.
Alright, so, the first one, tag, is very simple and I think it's kind of an international game.
The game is, one person is "it" and that means they have to chase the other players and touch, or tag, them.
That's right.
And the power transfers and now, you're it.
That's right.
Right, and then chase, and then tag, you're it.
I think in Japan, the word for it is "oni".
So, in America, we say, "it", but in Japan, I think people call it, "oni".
Yeah, so the phrase is, "Tag, you're it!"
That's right and then you run around and you try and catch the next person.
Now, another game that we play and is really popular in America and I think also very popular in Japan as well is hide-and-seek.
And, basically, the rules of hide-and-seek are: one person covers their eyes or puts their face against the wall
and counts to one-hundred, counts to two-hundred and everyone else runs off and they find a place to hide.
And then that person goes around looking for all the people who have hidden.
Yeah, I think every, every situation you can decide what the count should be,
how many seconds they have to wait or where they have to wait, somewhere quiet or somewhere open.
So, every, the childhood group can, they can decide the rules for each game.
That's right. Now, when I was a kid, we used to play a very interesting version of hide-and-seek called, manhunt,
where we played with the whole neighborhood and then the guy who went looking for everyone, once he found one person,
then his team became two people and then they would find another person and the team became three people, then ten people,
until there was only one guy left standing and the goal was to find the last man.
Yeah, it sounds really interesting to have like an outdoors, neighborhood-wide game like that. Sound really fun and...
That's right.
In my neighborhood, we also had neighborhood-wide games.
Yeah, and the last game we wanted to share with you is called, Mother, may I?
And this one is a little bit interesting.
So, you have the, the main person is the mother and they stand at the front and the other players are over here, in a line.
And they take turns asking the mother, "Mother, may I...." for example, "Take two steps forward."
And the mother says, "Yes you may," or "No, you may not."
Now, the goal of Mother, may I? is to be the first person to reach the spot where the mother's standing.
If you reach the spot, then you get to be the next person to be the mother.
Right, when you can touch the mother, you become the next mother and you won. Okay, so...
The key is asking question you think the mother will let you do.
That's right.
Ummm, so, maybe, "Mother, may I run three, big steps?" Well, maybe she'll say, "No."
But, if you say, "Mother, may I take two bunny-hops?" Well, maybe she'll say, "Yes."
That's right.
So, it's kind of an interesting game, thinking about the personality behind the game, but maybe it's a popular one in America. Did...
Absolutely popular.
You used to play?
And yes, yes, yes, I did play Mother, may I? when I was a kid and I loved it.
Although, I prefer to call myself, "Father", rather than "Mother".
Anyway, that's all the time we have for today. See you later.
Alright people, that's all the time we have for today.
Don't forget that this month is November and it's Thanksgiving, so why not give Thanksgiving dinner a try here in Japan?
Buy a turkey at your local supermarket, cook it up, have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner and try and speak English while you're doing it,
because English and learning language is about learning culture.
Invite your friends over, have a big party and, uh, yep, say good-bye.
We'll see you next time! Bye-bye!
See you next time!