Christmas songs

Actually, it's not that easy to find Christmas songs that people can use to learn. Many of them use unusual vocabulary ("Deck the Halls with Boughs of Holly"?!) or have references to adult concepts ("I'm all lit up like a Christmas tree" means he's drunk), or are just too hard for non-native kids to understand. I guess that's why "Last Christmas" by Wham! is so popular here - it's not too hard to understand, and the lyrics are not too obviously adult-oriented. That song is not popular at all in the US, though. I had never heard it before I moved to Fujinomiya!

It seems like the Japanese versions of these songs are a lot more kid-oriented. I could be wrong, though.

Santa Claus is coming to town

The English version goes like this:

You better watch out
You better not cry
Better not pout
I'm telling you why
Santa Claus is coming to town

He's making a list
Checking it twice
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice
Santa Claus is coming to town

He sees you when you're sleeping
He knows when you're awake
He knows if you've been bad or good
So be good, for goodness' sake!

I never realized this before, but Santa is actually pretty scary! I don't know the Japanese version of this song, but I hope it's not the same as this.

Spuriousness

There are many interesting words to describe logic in English. One of my favorites is "spurious". If you look this word up in an E-J dictionary, you might get 誤った or 偽の, but these do not capture the true meaning of the word. Spuriousness is a very specific kind of mistake.

Basically, spuriousness is the logical mistake of assuming one thing causes another when it actually does not. For example, consider these premises:

A) More crimes are committed during summer than winter.
B) More suntan lotion is used during summer than winter.

Some people might see these facts and claim that therefore, suntan lotion causes crime, or that criminals use more suntan lotion. This is "spurious logic", or assuming a causal relationship when it doesn't exist. In fact, it's more likely that both are caused by the heat - a 3rd variable not mentioned in either premise. Of course, you would need to actually run an experiment to verify that.

In essence, A and B happening around the same time doesn't necessarily mean that A causes B or B causes A. They could both be caused by C, D, E, or some combination of different factors.

To further illustrate, consider the following premises, which I have actually heard a few times:

A) Japanese have trouble pronouncing certain sounds in English.
B) Japanese look different from most people from English-speaking countries.

The spurious conclusion is that Japanese people's looking different affects their ability to pronounce those words. But actually, people from all over Asia learn to speak perfect English when they or their descendents are raised in the English-speaking world. The more logical, less spurious conclusion is that people's ability to pronounce words in any language depends on what language they speak as they grow up. This conclusion is quite an obvious one, but spurious logic sometimes leads people to accept another, incorrect conclusion instead.

Cold

Here are some more colorful expressions for "It's cold".

-It's split nippy.
-It's freezing. （凍るほど冷たい・寒い）
-It's frigid.　（非常に冷たい・寒い）
-It's colder than a witch's tit. （とても下品でもよく知られる表現）

You can also use the word "cold" in expressions like this:

-He got cold feet.（彼はおじけづいた）
-He quit smoking cold turkey.　（彼は急にタバコをきっぱりやめた）

There are many ways to use the words "cold", "hot", "warm", and "cool". Try looking them up and finding a few for yourselves!

Louis Vuitton only designed one thing

As far as I can tell, 90% of Louis Vuitton's sales are various shapes of bags with the same pattern printed on them. Can he really be called a designer? It seems like he's only designed one thing, which is a gold "LV" on a brown background. At least Calvin Klein, Gucci, Chanel etc. all have a variety of designs and products. The success of the Louis Vuitton brand is a mystery to me.