Posts Tagged: japanese

  • Man with smoking old gun in the shadows - we often talk about the "Italian mafia", the "Russian mafia" or the "Japanese mafia". In these usages "mafia" is used to refer generically to secret societies of criminals that operate primarily as private protection firms,

    Mafia – criminal fraternities

    I have been watching a dramatic series on SBS online called Zero Zero Zero. It follows the journey of a cocaine shipment, from the time a cartel of Italian criminals (the mafia) decides to buy it until the cargo is delivered and paid for, passing through its packaging in Mexico and shipment across the Atlantic […]

  • Tim Entwisle with his books—word of the week is tsundoku

    Tsundoku—piling up unread books

    What is a loanword? English is a great pirate language. If it doesn’t have words for something it just raids other languages for them. Called loanwords, English has borrowed thousands of them from nearly all the main languages. English has taken café from French, pyjamas from Hindi, assassin from Arabic, and the list goes on. […]

  • In 2007 the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance defined the large part of the population who were 20 to 30 years old and still living with their families as bamboccioni. It means big dummy boys.

    Boomerangers and bamboccioni

    The boomerang generation earned the name because of  the tendency of many of its members to return to live with their parents after a short period away. They give up their independence or pseudo-independence to move back home.  (Pseudo-independence is characterised by coming home on weekends with their washing and unpaid bills). They are part […]