Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Mickey Mouse College

I just came across the phrase "ekiben daigaku," (train station lunch-college), which Kenkyusha tells me is a "Mickey Mouse college; a two-bit (sic) college in the middle of the countryside."

I love that the "Mickey Mouse" and "two-bit" epithets made it to Japanese vernacular, if only in a dictionary, because I don't know if I've ever heard the "Mickey Mouse" epithet anywhere in the U.S. besides in parody (SNL, and Coen Brothers movies). And isn't "two-bit" a pretty rural expression anyway?

I can see it already: the Todai graduate looking down his pince-nez at the Ishikawa Community College bumpkin, saying to his Harvard buddy, "suchupid mikkee mousu maza-fackah. so suchupid correge guraju-et."

I propose some new epithets (modifying "college" for the purposes of the post):
Mickey Rourke College: where population is mostly "returning students" going for third careers.
Minnie Mouse College: Barnard.
"Ekiben" College: Just want to bring the "lunch break" epithet over the U.S. Alternate euphemisms would include "night school commuter" and "mail order degree."

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