Project You!

CULTURAL CORNER
Today I've got a bit of trivia for you.
I found an interesting website that shows what people call "soft drinks" in different parts of the United States.
When students of English in Japan hear the word "soft drink", they often think of the word "juice".
In Japan, ジュース(juice)is used to describe fruit juice as well as carbonated and non-carbonated drinks.
In English, a "soft drink" is a drink that is carbonated and non-alcoholic.
(Although we don't usually say it, by nuance, a "hard drink" would be a drink with alcohol).
Juice, on the other hand, is used mainly to describe fruit juices or fruit-like drinks like Cool Aid.
If you ask a waiter or a waitress what "soft drinks" they have, they will say "We have Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7-Up, and Ginger Ale".
They will all be carbonated drinks.

In the United States, "soft drink" is the official word for carbonated drinks, but there are colloquial words for it them as well.
For example, where I come from in Wyoming, it is common to hear people say "pop" for "soft drink". Other parts of the country use the word "Coke" as a general term.
You might hear someone ask, "what kind of coke do you have?" and the waitress might answer "We have Pepsi, Diet Pepsi, 7-Up, and Ginger Ale".
Kind of strange, right?
You might think that it's weird that they don't even have Coca Cola when someone asks about coke.

Take a look at the chart of the United States.
This shows the regions of the country where people use the word "pop", "soda", and "coke" for "soft drink".
You'll notice that most of Wyoming, my home state, uses the word "pop" as I mentioned earlier.

If you aren't sure what people say in the state you are visiting, don't worry, everyone understands soft drink!