I heard once that the average male speaks 2,000 words a day, while the average female speaks 7,000. My wife interprets this as meaning we are allotted 9,000 words between the two of us. She therefore begs me to keep mum so she can take ...
Upon asking a group of Japanese young people, "What's the best way to impress a date?" I once received the following answers: Girl: "Agree with everything he says. Make him think he's brilliant, even if he's a ninny." Boy: "Lie. Feed her any line you can, ...
Here's a fun fact to sweeten your life: The average Japanese consumes about 1.1 kg of chocolate per year. Meanwhile your typical American gobbles down five times that amount -- which is still nothing compared to 10 kg snarfed away by your average Swiss or ...
Lots of people think one sure way to improve your Nihongo skills is to marry a Japanese. They hold this view even knowing a good textbook is cheaper and takes up less space. In my case, however, not only did I marry a Japanese, ...
My Japanese wife was born blessed -- or cursed -- with the kind of meat-and-potatoes name one usually assumes is an alias. In English a comparable moniker might be "Mary Brown" or "Susan Smith." This soapsuds name did not trouble her until one day she ...
When in Rome, do as the Romans do . . . Jaywalk. Anyway that's what I did on my sole trip to the Eternal City some years back, cautiously following snappy Italian shoes here and there across the Via del Corso and elsewhere. Accordingly, back ...
Hemingway once said that good writing begins with the simple production of but one true sentence. OK. Here's something that's true. Hemingway is dead. And not only him. Marilyn Monroe is dead. Lady Di. James Dean. Albert Einstein. Bruce Lee. Even John Wayne. In fact, ...
I sometimes eat lunch with a close friend who has but one child, a toddler aged 2. He likes to show me photographs. "Here," he puffs, easing up beside me and trailing a wagon stacked with folders. "These are the shots from today's breakfast, just ...
Just after the ghosts and goblins of Halloween disappear, we will enter yet another spooky holiday: Nov. 3 -- Culture Day. At least it's spooky in our house. Especially after one particular Culture Day 20 years ago. Here's the story: The year was 1979 and the ...
It's true that things have changed. In America, for example, we used to say any child could one day grow up to be president. Yet, Bill Clinton has now proved growing up isn't really necessary. There! I have cracked a joke about America! Now I ...
