Mind-Blowing Animal Facts I’ve Learned in Japan

Language is a funny thing. You can convey so much information with it but different languages often have different strengths when it comes to that expression. In English, we have all sorts of quirks and eccentricities from our colorful linguistic history. Japan also has its fair share of insights it can offer, a few of […]

The Temple With The Difficult Name

Amarbayasgalant is its name. I visited there one rainy summer day with the other trainees at my site, as well as our language teachers. The name of the temple always eluded me, and I referred to it as “The temple that starts with an A,” eventually progressing to “Amar-something.” The temple gets its name, I […]

No Name

Mongolians have many combinations for the names they choose, but sometimes, a name crops up that takes you by surprise. A Russian teacher at my school recently switched to teaching English, and I never noticed her name too often when I first got here, mainly because she didn’t work with me directly. Her name is […]

What’s In a Name?

“Proper names are poetry in the raw. Like all poetry they are untranslatable.” -W.H. Auden I was planning a lesson with one of my counterparts, when she told me her long name. Mongolians tend to have a short name, which those close to them use, and a long name, which is used more formally. Think […]