We May Have Found The Most Difficult Word For Japanese To Pronounce

Do you ever wonder why Tim Horton’s “Rrroll Up The Rim” contest have three R’s And two L’s?

Tim Hortons has an annual contest named “Rrroll Up The Rim To Win” where you roll your coffee cup rim to win prizes.  If you’re feeling really Canada otaku, here’s some interesting information about the game.

The “Rrroll Up The Rim To Win” contest is played every February until around the end of March.

Although we commonly just call it the “Roll Up The Rim game”, you might notice that the official name is spelled with three R’s and two L’s.    In it’s original advertisements on TV and radio,  “Rrroll Up The Rim To Win” was pronounced with a difficult rolling of the “R” sound, like what you might hear in French Canada, or what many Canadian children have to practice in French school.

“Roll” is a pretty difficult word for Japanese to properly pronounce, since it contains an “R” and an “L”, so we think that “Rrroll” might be the most difficult word ever for Japanese to pronounce, and “Rrroll up the rim” would be a 10/10 tongue twister for Japanese.

Check out the video below to see an original TV advertisement to hear the pronunciation.

Also, make sure you check out our video here on how to roll up the rim to win!


Translated by Haruna

How To “Roll Up The Rim To Win” At Tim Hortons!

Rolling up the rim to win is a time-honoured annual tradition for Canadians.

However, it’s a known fact that it’s really annoying to try to unroll a rim.  Nails have been broken.  Teeth gaps have been uncomfortably filled with wax paper.  In fact, you can actually buy a special pocket tool to help you roll up the rim!

However, there’s an easy way to roll up the rim, and we’ll show you how below.

Step 1.  Ruin your teeth or go crazy trying to roll up the rim by brute force.

Roll Up The Rim Frustration

Step 2.  The better way.  Start by pinching both sides of the cup, with the arrows in the middle.

Roll Up The Rim Pinch

Step 3. Push up with your thumbs.

Roll Up The Rim Push

Step 4. Most of the time you will lose, but at least you’ll learn how to read  “Please try again!” in French (SVP  is short for “s’il vous plait” or “please”).

Roll Up The Rim Play Again

Step 5.  Good luck winning – we did!

Roll Up The Rim Winning

Step 6. You only need to keep a piece of the cup if it’s a food prize.  If you win something big, like a TV, you better keep the cup!

Roll Up The Rim Winning Piece

The Children’s Beans Poem

Here’s a common poem children tend to recite in Canada.  We like it because when translated to Japanese, it sounds incredibly stupid!

Beans, beans are good for your heart!

The more you eat, the more you fart!

The more you fart, the better you feel,

So eat your beans at every meal!

 

In Japanese:

豆、豆は心に良い!

もっと食べて、もっとおならをしよう!

もっとおならをすると、もっと気分が良くなる!

だから毎食豆を食べよう!

 

In Romaji:

Mame, mame wa mahō no furūto!

motto tabe te, motto oto o kanadeyo u!

motto oto o kanadere ba, motto kibun ga yoku naru!

dakara maishoku mame o tabeyo u!

 

Here’s a second variation!

Beans, beans, the magical fruit!

The more you eat, the more you toot!

The more you toot, the better you feel!

So eat your beans at every meal!

 

In Japanese:

豆、豆は魔法のフルート!

もっと食べて、もっと音を奏でよう!

もっと音を奏でれば、もっと気分が良くなる!

だから毎食豆を食べよう!

 

Romaji:

Mame, mame wa mahō no furūto!

motto tabe te, motto oto o kanadeyo u!

motto oto o kanadere ba, motto kibun ga yoku naru!

dakara maishoku mame o tabeyo u!