Teacher Discussion Forums

HAMARU
Literally 'fall into...'. Quite a slangish
word for 'be absorbed in'.
"He has fallen into Karaoke."
"He has fallen into computer games."
They seem to work. Do they? Someone has fallen
into something and cannot get out of the habit.
Are there some other slang expressions in English?
Thank you.

'Fallen into' is OK but it isn't the only phrase you could use (I get the idea you're using it just to demonstrate to somebody that 'Japanese and English ARE similar, see!' LOL). For example, what about 'be(come) addicted to/hooked on' (COMPUTER GAMES ARE NARCOTICS)? This is an instance where the phrasal verb seems if not more formal, then certainly a more long-winded/convoluted way of saying things (and I'm not sure actually if 'He's fallen into computer games' is sufficient by itself - you might need to add e.g. 'the habit of playing' between 'into' and 'computer games', and perhaps and adverbial after all that ('all night'; 'until morning' etc) wouldn't go amiss either...so, I reckon the "narcotics metaphor" phrases are the more succinct and expressive).

I can only think of 'fallen into' in negative contexts, as in 'falling from grace' (falling out of favour with God).

E.G.
Fallen into debt.
Fallen into bad company
Fallen into bad habits

By contrast we cannot say
fallen into money
fallen into good company
fallen into good habits