Tour of Babel
Tour of Babel is a regular Popula column, in which we translate the world’s words that can’t be translated, the phrases and expressions that don’t travel (but that also, it turns out, do).
Tour of Babel: bachaqueo
Emergency commerce and black markets: the Venezuelan economy’s changing face
别忘初心 (Never Forget Why We Started)
It reads as a folksier, almost familial version of the more formally translated, “remain true.”
Tour of Babel Primary category in which blog post is published
The T on Chinese Transmasculinity
In English, T means trans, testosterone, or gossip. In Chinese, it’s a way of life.
Tour of Babel Primary category in which blog post is published
The Faces of Woiye
Woiye really comes into its own during a good gossip session.
Tour of Babel Primary category in which blog post is published
Trasformismo and Immobilismo
The illusion of change and the reality of perpetual stasis.
Hygge Yourself!
Since the 1990s, hygge has become central to any attempt to define an otherwise elusive Danish culture.
Tour of Babel Primary category in which blog post is published
Gidsland
Why was the nation that created the problems the one to solve it?
Tour of Babel: qualunquismo
“I am the one who does not believe in anything or anyone any more. I am the common man.”
Tour of Babel Primary category in which blog post is published
Walalo Citizenship and Kenyan Citizenship are Entirely Different
When people ask if I’m Walalo, I never know what to say because it doesn’t sound like something I should own.
