Tour of Babel

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).

Escape from the Mouth of the Shark

the known devil, versus the one as yet unknown

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.”