Fun Idea: Epcot Christmas Card

[merfsko]

Hi everyone!

I just returned from a very successful Christmas trip, and wanted to share one of the ideas I had that ended up being a lot of fun. I took a (Disney, of course) Christmas card, and had a Cast Member for every country in World Showcase sign it-- although I did end up missing France and China.

It was fun talking to all the Cast Members, and I love the end product!

I would have liked to also have other CMs- perhaps Cultural Reps from DAK or those who added extra magic to my day- but it just wasn't in the cards (heehee) this trip.

 

[wishicouldgomoreofte]

Wow, that turned out great! I hope I remember that, to copy your idea.

 

[DisDreaming4116]

I've heard of several ideas on the boards of things people get signed or written by the cast members of the different representative countries in the WS and this is my favorite. Awesome idea and I'm going to do the same in 2018.

 

[WEDWDW]

We do that a lot for special Birthdays of family members-they always LOVE their cards!

WS ICMs are the BEST!!!!

 

[skittles67]

What a great idea!!

 

[Magpie]

Oh, I did something similar to this a couple years ago, using the Holidays Around the World Passport instead of a card!

I was collecting Holiday greetings from all the countries, in addition to the stamps, and when we got to Japan the young lady we spoke to had no idea how to write "Merry Christmas". I mean, I would have been happy with any sort of holiday greeting, but she heard "Can you write Merry Christmas for me?" and was determined to give me exactly what I'd asked for. She called a young man over, and they put their heads together, debating, and finally came up with something phonetic. Which I thanked her for many, many times.

And then I went home and started thinking about learning Japanese, since it was so interesting to hear their discussion about how to write Merry Christmas. I actually began several months ago, and I'm thrilled to say I can actually read what your cast member wrote!

The first word, in orange, looks like medetou, which means "happy" and is probably part of a longer phrase - akemashite omdetou - Happy New Year. It's in the alphabet the Japanese people use to write words in their own language. The second, in green, is in a different alphabet, which they use for words that are borrowed for other languages, and reads phonetically as "Merry Christmas". (Merii Kurisumasu)

Ah, I'm SO excited to finally get to use my little tiny bit of Japanese for something useful! I am definitely looking forward to trying it out on some poor unsuspecting Castmember in January.

(Someday I may need to learn Arabic, too...)

 

[merfsko]

I'm thrilled to say I can actually read what your cast member wrote!

The first word, in orange, looks like medetou, which means "happy" and is probably part of a longer phrase - akemashite omdetou - Happy New Year. It's in the alphabet the Japanese people use to write words in their own language. The second, in green, is in a different alphabet, which they use for words that are borrowed for other languages, and reads phonetically as "Merry Christmas". (Merii Kurisumasu)

Ah, I'm SO excited to finally get to use my little tiny bit of Japanese for something useful! I am definitely looking forward to trying it out on some poor unsuspecting Castmember in January.

(Someday I may need to learn Arabic, too...)

I love that you were inspired to learn a new language! I wish I had that sort of motivation, but I'm still working on French, which I've supposedly been learning since grade three.

The CM told me that the orange was my name in Japanese (Meredyth) and the Green said Merry Christmas. That's really interesting to know about the phonetic translation!

 

[Magpie]

I love that you were inspired to learn a new language! I wish I had that sort of motivation, but I'm still working on French, which I've supposedly been learning since grade three.

The CM told me that the orange was my name in Japanese (Meredyth) and the Green said Merry Christmas. That's really interesting to know about the phonetic translation!

Oh, now that you say it, I can see Meridesu.... That last symbol (su) is pronounced just 's', since "TH" isn't part of the alphabet, and a lot of Japanese people have trouble saying it. So like, "Meh-ree-dess" with all the syllables given the same emphasis.

Amusingly, because I have really bad eyesight, my name is just one sound away from being the word for "eyeglasses" in Japanese.

I started French in school when I was nine (we'd emigrated to Canada), but I've never been any good at it. I think the problem is, when you live in a country with native French speakers, you're always afraid to open your mouth for fear of being judged. And you know exactly how awful you are, too!

I really learned to dislike French in school.

Whereas the nice thing about Japanese is no one expects me to be any good at it, and everyone's very encouraging when I try. An acquaintance of mine recently came back from Japan, and realized he'd been accidentally wishing everyone he met a good morning, even at night, and no one had corrected him! They would just smile and say, "Good morning!" right back to him.

I imagine Arabic would be similar, though I heard a rumour that a lot of their plural forms bear no resemblance to the singular, so that could be difficult to learn!