Are 長靴 wellies?

This word is translated to ‘rain boots’, which I’ve never heard of, but if you search Wikipedia you get the page for wellies.

Does this need to be an alternative translation?

Thanks!

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Yes, they are wellies. But rain boots seems to be a common alternative name, I’ve also seen gum boots which I think is an American English term? I don’t know how common wellingtons or wellies are outside of British English speaking places though.

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i dunno if yanks would even know what a wellie is tbh

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In Canada (somewhat of a British English speaking place), although I knew what that word was, I never heard anyone use it. Only ever heard either “rubber boots” or “rain boots” (rubber being more common), with one exception. The exception being during my grade schools days, my friend and is family had just moved to Canada from the UK.

That may be specific to where I lived (a few different places, but all in Ontario).

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Nah, gumboots is British - we use the term heavily here in Australia. “Rain boots” is the US English term, according to Wikipedia, so it’s not all that surprising that WaniKani uses it.

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The OED says “Originally U.S.; now chiefly New Zealand, Australian, and South African”. As a British person I understand the term but it’s not the usual one, which is “wellies”.

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By “British” I meant “British English” rather than “used in Britain”. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Ohhh, interesting. I’ve always been around English speakers from all over the place, so I’m never quite sure where vocab variations come from. If I don’t know for sure I think I default to assuming the US, which is showing some bias! I’ll have to work on that.

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… personally by British English I mean “the dialect of English used in Britain” :slight_smile:

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It’s the English that’s used throughout the British Empire, me old teacake.

In all seriousness, though, “Australian English” doesn’t really seem to show up in categories of English - it’s “US English” versus “British English”, and maybe if something’s fairly uniquely Australian, it’s “British English that’s used in Australia”.

(Though I’ve always been amused by the Japanese word for Australian English - it’s 豪語, from 豪太剌利オーストラリア, but the primary meaning of the word is “boasting; big talk; bombast”, and… that seems pretty accurate to me.)

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By that measure, American English is also British English…

Presumably most of the categorisation is done by Americans[1], so it’s not really surprising that Aussie English isn’t recognised :grinning:

[1] On the grounds that British classifications would be ‘SW1A’ and ‘Wrong’.

I literally first encountered the term in a textbook while teaching English in Japan.

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Huh, I was picturing more doc martens:

than wellies

Do Brits understand the term waders? Curious now

For us “outsiders” (I’m Romanian), British English is “the dialect of English used in Britain”, as well. But also… it is ‘proper English’… at least as far as I’m concerned :rofl:
The English language from anywhere else is referred to simply as English, unless one wants to highlight a difference in dialects and then will oppose “American English” to “British English”.

As far as “wellies” go… I know the term but only because I’ve read and watched and listened to too much British stuff :man_shrugging:
I honestly doubt it’s all that well known among those of us who do speak English. Mainly because our own version is a direct equivalent of the far more common (sorry!) “rubber boots” :slight_smile:

EDIT-
Back in my school days they used to teach British English (i.e. harbour not harbor, just to give an example as this one came up in a UK-vs-US conversation just today) but it’s been a while and I don’t know what the standards are nowadays. They probably don’t matter anyway, what with everyone learning English from US-centric media…

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Waterproof boots/pants that look like overalls with straps over the shoulders? That’s what I picture when I think of waders.

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Good, just checking :sweat_smile:

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these are waders

~34 years an Englishman

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Had to make sure they weren’t “overall except wo’ah innits” considering rain boots are wellies.

American words for things are silly too. In the northeastern US if you trip and fall, old ladies will ask if you took a diggah

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