On our Facebook group, a member told the story of teaching English in Japan, where a student couldn’t remember the slang expression stud muffin, but came pretty close by substituting his own term, hunk waffle. This is part of a complete episode...
A Jackson, Mississippi, woman who used to work in Japan says that each day as she left the office, her colleagues would say Otsukaresama desu, which means something along the lines of “Thank you for your hard work.” Although its literal translation...
The Japanese developers of an early camera named it Kwannon, in honor of the Buddhist goddess of mercy. Later, the company changed the name to Canon. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Kwannon and Canon” You’re listening to A Way...
If you’re a parent looking for ways to warn your kids not to play with matches, you could do worse than “If you play with fire, you’ll pee the bed.” Similar admonitions are used around the world, apparently because a child can far better relate to...
So you think you hate puns? Wait until you hear this item from a Singapore newspaper about a Japanese banking crisis. This is part of a complete episode. Transcript of “Japanese Banking Pun” Something I recorded in my Commonplace book a long time...
What’s the best way to win at scissors, paper, rock? Grant delves into the game’s various monikers, its roots going back centuries in Europe and Asia, and the role it plays among children learning about fairness. Studies have even been done to...