Tag Archives: Japan
Corporate Spelling Experiments and Fear of a Chinese-Speaking Planet
For our once-a-month-ish gab fest, Carol and I just couldn’t pass this one up. Sometime, corporations knock it out of the park with their inventions, or re-inventions, of words. Who can argue with Coca-Cola? And it’s not like they’re alone. … Continue reading
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English-only in the US, translating tweets in Japan and satire in Egypt
The English Only movement in the United States is always active during times of high immigration (check out my previous interview with US English lobbyist Tim Schultz). Now, the movement has got a shot in the arm from the Tea … Continue reading
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Explaining Japan’s disaster to kids and Russian beer to Americans
Japan has a whole lexicon of earthquake and tsunami-related phrases, many of which are collected in the Japan Times by cultural commentator Kaori Shoji. There is bōsai zukin (防災頭巾), meaning the protective safety hood that Tokyo children carry with them … Continue reading
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Hiroshima, Nagasaki and self-censorship
(Updated) I originally wrote this post around the 65th anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs. The recent earthquake in Japan seems to echo those incidents in certain ways: a calamitous event, followed by massive destruction and huge loss of … Continue reading
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Grammar tips in Brazil, and magic in a second language
Forget their laidback image, Brazilians care deeply about grammar. One city has a long-established grammar hotline staffed by Portuguese language experts. Now the state of Rio de Janeiro is following suit. This may, or may not, be in response to … Continue reading
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podcast #44: Haruki Murakami’s fans, confessions of a kanji-holic, and kwassa kwassa
This week, we check out a claim that with the aid of a supercomputer, it’s possible to predict which words will become extinct in a few centuries. The word “dirty” apparently doesn’t have much staying power. Nor do “guts” and … Continue reading
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