March 25th 2022
Cable cars – are they on the ground or in the air?
If you research the word ‘cable car’ on the Internet you will get images of both ground and aerial1 cable cars. In American English a cable car is the type of transport below in picture A. In most other countries ‘cable car’ means ‘a cabin hanging from a cable in the air that is used to transport people’ as in picture B. In American English the type of transport in picture B is an ‘aerial tramway’. In British English the transport type in picture A is called a ‘tram’, the type of transport you might see in in many European cities or in San Francisco. Confusing2.
To make it more confusing the aerial cable car, picture B, is called a ロープウェイ(ropeway) in Japan. In English you may hear about ropeways meaning an aerial cable car but as is often the case, the Japanese katakana words confuse things and most people don’t call the transport in picture B a ropeway. A ropeway may give people the image of something in picture C or D but it might not give them any clear image at all.
To confuse you more, some ropeways in Japan, that’s the picture B type of transport, are called ‘gondolas’. Again ‘gondola’ could mean an aerial cable car in English but the image most people have of the word gondola is an image of the long, narrow boats in Venice in Italy like the one below in picture E.
To add confusion to the confusion Japan does have the word ケーブルカー(cable car) in katakana but this meaning is neither the same as the British or the American meanings, although it is similar to the American meaning. This Japanese meaning of ‘cable car’ is usually a single train car running on a cable on the ground. The cable pulls the car up and down a steep3 slope4 slowly. A normal train can’t go up the slope because it is too steep. It is called a ‘funicular railway’ in English and this type of vehicle5 can be seen in mountainous6 countries such as Austria and Switzerland. Picture F is a picture of a funicular railway.
Japan has a lot of the aerial type of cable cars – cable cars in the British meaning of the word that is. The cable car lines are not so long compared to many other countries. They generally run up and down the side of one mountain, usually for the purposes of seeing the view from the cable car itself and seeing the views from when the cable car stops near the top of the mountain. The cable cars in Japan don’t cross valleys so much and aren’t seen at ski resorts as much as in some countries. Having cables cars not only for people who go skiing means not only people who go skiing have a lot of opportunities to use cable cars and get up the mountains easily if they want to.
After getting off the cable car at the top of the mountain people can enjoy the views and do a bit of hiking. Most of the mountains are heavily wooded7 so the contrast between the part of the mountain above the treeline8 and the wooded slopes below is interesting.
Urban9 cable cars used as transport systems, such as in some cities such as Mexico City, are not common, although there are plans for some kind of aerial transport system in the future for urban areas in Japan. The cities of Kobe, Nagasaki and Sapporo are known however for their cable cars that go up a mountain in each city and the night views from the top cable car stations are famous.
This word ‘cable car’ is a good example of how katakana English can cause confusion when communicating in English! It shows why it is important to be able to explain things, even a little, to help make things clear to the listener.
1. aerial
<Example sentences>
■ That photographer’s aerial photography is amazing.
■ Chairlifts are a type of aerial transport.
■ Aerial transport is the future of urban transport it is said.
3. steep
<Example sentences>
■ This mountain is too steep to climb in winter.
■ Do you like the steep slopes for skiing?
■ Only some animals such as goats can climb very steep slopes.
5. vehicle
<Example sentences>
■ What kind of vehicle do you use on the farm?
■ We need a vehicle that can go over snow.
■ Many vehicles in the future will not need drivers.
9. urban
<Example sentences>
■ Trains are a big part of urban transport in Japan.
■ Most animals don’t like living in urban areas but for some animals it’s no problem.
■ Tell me about a cable car ride in Japan.
■ I’ve been on a cable car in ～. ～.
■ What is your image of a ‘ropeway’?
■ There’s a cable car in ～. ～.
- in this sentence ‘aerial’ means in the air.
- ‘confusing’ means difficult to understand.
- ‘steep’ means not a gentle angle.
- in this senetence ‘slope’ means the side of a mountain or hill.
- ‘vehicle’ means a machine usually with an engine and usually with wheels that is used as a form of transport for people or used to carry things.
- ‘mountainous’ means having mountains
- ‘wooded’ means covered with trees.
- ‘treeline’ means the area on a mountain above which trees grow.
- ‘urban’ means related to cities, not the countryside.