Football, Not Soccer.

Ok then, so I guess it's time for my real first entry which actually relates to the subject of the blog.

A "real" football

I've been living here since August, so about 5 months now. I didn't experience the "cultural shock" that was a term thrown about by other ex-pats who found it difficult to settle in. I think this was because I was fortunate enough to speak the only language known on an international scale - football.

Well, I call it football, along with the rest of the whole world, apart from America. Which leads me into my main point. Where did the yanks get the term "soccer" from? This football/soccer dilemma was the first major difference that hit me, besides the fact that everyone sounded different to me and kept saying "Wow, I love your accent!"

I chose to do my Cultural Literacy Studies research project on the reasons why Americans did not adopt the world's most popular sport as their primary pass-time. I mean, they're American, so wouldn't they want to be the best at it? They have such driven and determined attitudes in all sports, so why not this one?

I'll spare you the boring, historical reasonings behind the lack of "soccer", but it was mainly to do with a lack of success, new sports arising (baseball, basketball, American football and ice hockey), and the fact that they were unable to change the rules to their liking.

Despite my thorough research (total lie there, I spent amount twenty-five minutes searching on Google and bluffed a reference list), I never came across anything relevant to origination of the word "soccer". I'm sure it's very easy to find out, but I really can't be bothered doing anymore research.

So my American muckka's, where's it come from? And don't even try giving me the whole: "We play real (American) football!"- because we all know that's just a pile of crap. The "real" football is the one played with our feet, which is why I guess we called it "foot"ball.