By Les Tan/Red Sports
We had one of those “not-so-sure” moments today because my crew and I ended up having a lively discussion about whether Japan was from the Asian continent.
I took the word ‘continent’ for its physical geographical meaning because Japan is an archipelago of 6,852 islands, while another crew mate took it for its sporting geographical meaning because the IOC classifies Japan as part of the ‘Asian continent’.
Another crew mate, who wrote the initial copy that triggered this discussion, wondered why we were even arguing about this.
Australia is considered an Asian representative at the World Cup because they played in the Asian World Cup qualifiers to get to South Africa. Do you see the Australians as Asians? I’m guessing most people in Singapore do not and would correct us if we wrote ‘Asian representative Australia crash out of World Cup’.
Similarly, England is not seen as part of Europe even though they played in the European World Cup qualifiers. As far as physical geography goes, England is part of the United Kingdom, which is an island mass of its own. The British do not see themselves as part of the European continent and when they refer to Europe, they say ‘the continent’.
It is interesting how we define words depending on the cultural lenses we wear.
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Well, as I understand it, Australia switched from Oceania to Asia so they had better competition and a clearer run to the World Cup. It’s worked out well for the Kiwis though, whose rather poorly thought out name – the All Whites – hasn’t hampered their unbeaten run in the first round.
This from a nation of not many more people than Sg where soccer is a third class sport at best. Kudos to NZ.. the commentators up here (in Australia) were rather worried they’d get further than the Socceroos, but we’re both out in the first round, so it’s all good 🙂