I’m Japanese and currently studying abroad in the US. Recently I was telling some classmates about onsens and how my family are enthusiasts and they were so weirded out by the concept especially when I told them that my father & brother go together the most (people are fully naked in onsens if you’re unaware). Non-sexual nudity was never a big deal to me and in Japan where bathtubs are the norm instead of showers it’s not even unusual for same-sex family members to bathe together (one at each end). Where does this prudishness come from? Especially in a country that’s known worldwide for its hyper sexuality (Hollywood, celebs, porn industry, etc.)?
Septic tank -> Yank. A brit slang for American I picked up somewhere.
In Australia it’s shortened to “Sepo”.
As an American, this is good slang. I hate it here.
That’s a brand new Cockney rhyme to me, thanks for the giggles!
Could you stick to Yankee or Yank or something? It’s not like I find the disdain confusing, but Septic is a little heavy-handed. We’ve got big and growing problems, but we are all still people here, and not everybody under that umbrella has been asking for it. The assholes in charge have been running on minority support for decades now.
Curious, though. Septic tanks are a standard feature in rural USA. Are they rare in the rest of the world? Is this something we’re considered odd for?
It’s cockney rhyming slang, it’s best not to think too deep about it
Americans are called yanks, yank rhymes with tank, and septic tanks are a type of tank, so Americans are septics. It’s not exactly flattering but it’s not really as much of an insult as it sounds.
The same kind of logic has them calling “stairs” “apples and pears” because pears rhymes with stairs and apples are kind of similar to pears.
Or “cherry” meaning “lie” because lie rhymes with pie, and cherry is a type of pie.