5.     karaoke                                                                                       
        an audio / video sing-along system which plays music and displays lyrics

        Where does the word "karaoke" come from?  (choose the one best answer)

A.    Adapted from the Brazilian call-and-response song style known as Carioca.
B.    Contraction of the modern-day Japanese words for "empty" and "orchestra."
C.    Named for a WWII-era entertainer named Carrie, who was from Oklahoma.
D.    Literary reference to The Legend of Karoki, a city now known as Okinawa.




Like most dynamic languages Japanese is big on loan words, but whereas they used to come from Chinese today they're mostly coming from English.

Do you have a kompyuta (computer) on your desuku (desk)?  Maybe there is a karar-terebi (color TV) on your teburu (table)?

In fact no one sang Karaoke before 1981 because the Japanese hadn't invented it yet, the name coming from kara (void) and oke, short for okesutora (orchestra) -- so B is correct.

(close this window to return to the quiz, or if you just got here you can navigate from the menu on the left)