Idioms of the week:

Backseat driver

A bad hair day

Lessons August 2024 Week 1

The flagship store of Animate Ikebukuro is the largest anime store in the world.

The huge shop has nine above-ground floors and another two basement floors.

It has 8,554.673 m² of shop space.

Many anime fans in the US learned to speak Japanese through anime.

In the 1970s, mostly only young people bought anime toys.

These young people are now adults and want to buy different types of merchandise.

July 27 is National Day of the Cowboy.

A cowboy is an animal herder who tends cattle on ranches in North America.

The original cowboys were from Spain where they were called Vaquero (bahkero).

In the US, young boys watched the cattle and got the name “cowboy.”

In the 1800s, cowboys would drive the cattle cross-country to be sold.

Names for a cowboy in American English include buckaroo, cowpoke, cowhand, and cowpuncher.

“Back to the salt mines” means “return to work.”

I was off for the holidays, then it was back to the salt mines.

“Backhanded compliment” means “something that sounds like praise but could also be an insult.”

 He said my speech was “surprisingly good,” that sounds like a backhanded compliment.