Category Archives: Nagoya

I forgot what the word ‘opine’ means today. Had to look it up. The more you busy yourself with foreign languages, the more your brain begins to feel like swiss cheese . You lose vital pieces of information or memory, … Continue reading →

2009 is the Year of the Cow on the Japanese calendar, and the entirety of Japan has been plastered in cowprint to celebrate, but Nagoya really is throwing itself into this with particular aplomb. All of the streets have cowprint … Continue reading →

If you were wondering where on earth I’ve been, the answer is (variously) Kyoto, Singapore, Malaysia, Osaka, Narita Airport and Nagoya. Malaysia was humid, Singapore was like a sinister mini-paradise, Kyoto is beautiful, Osaka is about the most self-consciously cool … Continue reading →

Shortly after my father died of brain cancer in St Columbus’ Hospice, Edinburgh, early in the morning sometime in March 1989 (if I remember correctly) after years of protracted illness, my mother and my father’s adopted son Nino ended up … Continue reading →

Japan has this knack for taking someone else’s good idea and making it just slightly more awesome. Yesterday I was a snivelling mess thanks to one of the thirty different colds that have been going around the dorms recently, so … Continue reading →

Reading Guy Deutscher’s The Unfolding of Language again after a two-month break, I find myself struck by a perverse urge to learn Turkish. It has one of the most indulgent conjugational systems in the world – you seem to essentially … Continue reading →

For every linguist who has ever bemoaned the nonsense gender-assignment of German (I’m looking at you, Mark Twain, you git) or the fiddly grammar of Japanese: I take it you already know Of tough and bough and cough and dough? … Continue reading →

I meant to write something long and thoughtful about Obama being elected, and how deeply it seemed to affect my American friends, but I have ended up with little more than fractured nonsense tapped out in spare moments over the … Continue reading →

Ever feel like you’re really a part of history? YYYYYEEEEEAAAAH!

Yes, I am going to write about a VIDEO GAME! I know I barely ever do this, for obvious reasons, but having spent the weekend on my own in a deserted dormitory in the company of nothing but videogames and … Continue reading →