Playing with Acronyms
Our surrounding is flooded by a numerous acronyms, i.e., chains of alphabetical abbreviation of words and names such as NHK-ESS. Indeed, most of them provide convenient tools for our life whereas they often make us feel alone disconnecting our communication due to the dry chain of alphabets.
A certain group of acronyms may be familiar to a specific group of people but, for the others, they are just jargons and meaningless alphabets. Nevertheless, they are used in our daily life without explaining or knowing what the original meaning is. If so, not keeping away from them nor paying regard to the original meaning, why donft we enjoy playing with acronyms in our own and incorrect ways to tickle the original senses. As a consequence, hopefully, we would become modest and careful of the use of those words among public and oldsters.
In the following, some examples of acronyms are listed. You are of course welcome to add your own favorite ones by consulting the dictionary, replace the ones shown below, and make fun of creating new ironical translation as new versions. The list shown below is divided into several sections so that they can be allotted to each working group of practice. After working on the production of your own acronymic translation for the illustrated ones or other favorite choice (30 min), discuss the groupfs favorite selection (15 min), and each group must present a few or more of the selected ones to the general class and explain.
In advance to the class in Feb. 28, you are notified of this content in the Web-page because you may need some preparation if intrigued, I hope.
| Group 1. | Original | Joking Version |
| IAL | Icelandic AirLine | I am Always Late (known example) |
| JAL | Japan AirLine | Japanese Aero Limousine; Jump Above Locality; |
| ANA | All Nippon Airways | Attention to Nearmiss Alert; Anticipating No Accident; |
| JAS | Japan Air System | JALfs Aid for Survival |
| Other Examples |
UA¨united airline; NW¨northwest airline; AA¨American airline; TWA¨transworld airline; KA¨Korean airline; LH¨lufthanza; BA¨British airways; EMS¨express mail service; |
|
| Group 2. | Original | Joking Version | USA | United States of America | Unsatisfied and Selfish Ally; Ultimately Saturated with Attorneys; |
| NATO | North Atlantic Treaty Organization | No Action Talk Only (known example) |
| UN | United Nations | Unable Noblesse; |
| PKO | Peace-Keeping Operation | Peace by Knighthood and Optimism; |
| WTO | World Trade Organization | Worldwide Terrorismfs Opportunity |
| Other Examples |
UNESCO¨United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ISO¨International Organization for Standardization UK¨United Kingdom FBI; EPA; NIH; NSF; NASA; CIA; |
|
| Group 3. | Original | Joking Version |
| NHK | Nippon Hoso Kyokai | Normalized Horizon of Knowledge |
| ESS | English Speaking Society | Everyone Sings Songs |
| Other Examples |
JIS¨Japanese Industrial Standards NPO¨Non-Profit Organization NGO¨Non-Governmental Organization UCLA; SU; OSU; SUNY; MIT; IIT; ICU; | |
| Group 4. | Original | Joking Version |
| BSE | Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy | Bovine Shakes the Economy (earth); Bombardment on Selfish Economy; |
| LSD | Lysergic acid Diethylamide | Let's Speak Dreams; Let's Speak to the Devil; |
| GSC | Green Sustainable Chemistry | Good for Something Clean. |
| Other Examples |
SARS¨Serious Aspiration Retardant Symptom AIDS¨Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome LCA¨Life Cycle Assessment THG¨tetra-hydro-gestrinone; EPA¨eicosa-pentaenoic acid; DHA¨docosa-hexaenoic acid; etc. | |
| Group 5. | Original | Joking Version |
| IC | Integrated Circuit | Intellectual community; |
| NMR | Nuclear Magnetic Resonance | novel molecular renaissance; |
| MRI | Magnetic Resonance Imaging | man-researching intelligence |
| Other Examples |
LSI¨Large-Scale Integrated circuit UFO¨Unidentified Flying Object |
|
| Group 6. | ||
| Examples | JR; JA; JT; NTT; AU; KDI, MS; MAC; JRA; USJ; DL; | |