Skip to main content

What this? 10 Words You Can't Translate



Language. Not entirely unique to humanity. Though we share the non-verbal with the rest of the animal kingdom, the ability to communicate precise thoughts through spoken or written words is unique to us. It's thought that some of the deepest thoughts by the greatest philosophers couldn't be fully expressed to us because there just weren't any words to express it, a terrible tragedy, to say the least. If you're not going to learn another language, which you should, then at least you can get an edge on your psyche with these emotions that just can't be put to a single word in English.


10: Sehnsucht

"The inconsolable longing in the human heart for we know not what"; a yearning for a far, familiar, non-earthly land one can identify as one's home. If that's what the Germans coined, then the answer probably isn't over there.

Although you can translate this word as simply "longing", or more literally to "long addiction," it's the specificity that makes the word special. If you're ever homesick for a place you've never been to, then there's probably not much you can do to get rid of that feeling except somehow get busy. Hiraeth in Welsh is pretty similar, or fernweh in French.

9: Mamihlapinatapai 




What a mouthful. "Two people looking at each other, each wishing that the other will begin an action that they both desire but are unwilling to suggest or begin themselves." Oh, that one burns, doesn't it? Probably hits too close to home for some of you guys. Certainly did for me.

8: Załatwić


"It will be done but don't ask how." It does sound like something a Polish man would say. This implies the use of bribes, charisma, networks, or anything else at your disposal to get a job done. The closest you will come to this in English is "taking care of it", but that implies a more sinister tone than our Eastern European friends would imply.

7: Maskrosbarn




From Swedish. "Dandelion child" if you take it literally, but this is a kid who went through a tough childhood but still came out on top. Mexico is enjoying a show about just this kind of person right now, Netflix's Luis Miguel, so if you're interested in that kind of scenario, there you go. It's certainly an admirable trait.

6: Sharmā jī kā betā


Mr. Sharma's son. If your parents ever compared you to some other kid, especially when they were disappointed with you, then you'll understand what the Hindi are going on about. Nobody likes that guy. No one.

5: Yahourt


This one's from the French. A foreign song that you sing despite not speaking the language, just by imitating the sounds. This can apply to anything foreign that you try to imitate, though. I imagine that they also get a taste of their own medicine with their songs that are known worldwide that few foreigners actually know the lyrics of. I'm looking at you, Piaf.

4: 被自杀




Yeah. "Suicided" in Mandarin. Nowadays, actions that are forced upon you are given a passive ending, which gives you words like consumered, which means scammed, or vacationed, meaning you were either layed off or given forced vacations. Suicided, then, is a person who's been ruled as a suicide under very mysterious circumstances, kind of like the joke they make in the U.S. about finding leakers who killed themselves with two gunshots to the back of the head.

3: Estağfurullah


Turkish. The closest we can come to this is the concept of "Impostor's Syndrome". When someone gives you a compliment, but you know (or feel, most of the time) that you're not worthy of such compliment, you say this word as a reply, rejecting it, but at the same time, thanking them. The literal translation would be "I seek forgiveness from God" in Arabic, which is a common plea for forgiveness, and can be used for many contexts including this one.

2: Mikkabouzu


You ever know a guy who would start a project, and give up pretty quickly? Either he'd forget, or he was pretty lazy, but this would be a tendency. Mikkabouzu is what the Japanese gracefully invented to call them out, a word which means the "Three-day Monk". Sure, it's a quitter, but a certain type of quitter.

1:  Bulemielernen




Give it to the Germans to just put random words together and pinpoint a real issue. Bulimic studying is what they call cramming for exams and forgetting everything the day after, this extra step being important for the distinction. Nothing short of a mental binge and purge. In French, that's called bachoter, in Polish, they call it the 3 z's, for "zakuć, zdać, zapomnieć" or "to cram, to pass, to forget". In Spanish, we call it machetear, but that's more like cramming then cramming and forgetting after.

Looking into other languages can be quite the learning experience, so make sure to go and learn from them. It's nice to learn to see life from another angle, to frame your mind a different way so you can see things that you couldn't, or at least, name them. 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

20 Prompts to Kickstart Your Writing

Read part 2 here Freedom is a curious thing. When you can write about anything, you might as well be able to write about nothing. This is where prompts come in. If you can focus on a certain style, or genre, or plot device, then you might find that it's exactly what you need to stick to a story, or poem, or what have you. Without further ado, here are 20 prompts that can help you out. Your first line has 20 words, the second one has 19, and so on until you finish with one word A story that takes place in a single room No narration, only dialogue Death's greatest mistake Mix two very different genres Write a story in 100 words or less Start and end with the same phrase Apocalyptic but happy Rewrite your favorite story Everyone but your protagonist can speak Any action in the story is decided with you flipping a coin A failed experiment Write a story without using any pronouns Make the simplest of actions suspenseful An ordinary person in an extraordi
1 comment
Read more

5 Ways Modern Life Makes Us Sick

It's a no-brainer that the way we live nowadays is so different from our more primal days, so much that, were any of us taken back to those times, death would be more likely than survival. The same could be said about the reverse, but the lifestyle that humanity used to have was better suited for us. After all, we'd evolved around it. When speaking of illness, there are two factors to consider, the physical and the mental. If we're dealing with a hierarchy of needs, though, and there is a hierarchy for everything, then we see that, to survive, the physical must be taken care of first. 5: Lights on One of the main things that we lost with the arrival of civilization and technology is that of the natural cycle of the day, from campfires and torches to the screen on your cell phone. The world is getting brighter, and it's less expensive as we go along. Places which have never been lit are getting illuminated, and where there is light, it can shine far into t
Post a Comment
Read more

20 More Prompts to Kickstart Your Writing

See part 1 here: So I've done this before, but sometimes you need more ideas for your stories, something that can hit the spot. No problem. Remember, limiting your options will force you to be more creative, so give these prompts a try. Choose a vowel and avoid using it Write a palindrome Make your own Battle Royale game Describe the life of a merchant The first object to your left is now bound to your soul Tell your father's story Take a character from a book and put him in another environment Survival story Something scary that doesn't scare you What's the Devil afraid of? Take a poem and turn it into prose Take a story and turn it into a poem Read the news, create a fictional account of an event Alter your country's history Make the world understand a tyrant's reason for existing Create a new continent What would life be like if mild magic existed? Imagination is now a currency Write a religious text explaining the creation of the
1 comment
Read more