ネイティブが教える英会話のジェムスクール☆Teachers☆

In America and Europe, most coins have a human head on one side. This is called the 'heads' side, and the other side is 'tails'.

When we need to decide randomly between two options, we will flip a coin in the air. Someone will 'call' heads or tails while the coin is still in the air, and which side is facing up when it lands is the decision. This is at the root of several English idioms, such as "it's a toss-up" or "a toss of a coin", to indicate a situation with two equally-likely outcomes.




The technical term for the heads side of a coin is 'obverse' and tails is 'reverse'. Japanese coins don't have heads on them, so coin collectors call the side with the plants or buildings the obverse side.

My students tell me that coin flipping is not a common practice in Japan. Any situation that an American would resolve with a coin toss, a Japanese person would resolve with 'rock-paper-scissors'. Although rock-paper-scissors is now common around the world, apparently it didn't spread outside Asia until the early 1900's.

Thanks for reading!