I’ve decided that English is an awful language. In a past life I was a linguistic genius of sorts. At some point I’ve been fluent to varying degrees in English, French, Spanish, Italian, German and sign language (2 varieties). I’ve also had a working knowledge of Russian, Latin, Ukrainian and Hebrew. At some point.
I say that not to brag (or sound like a dumbass for forgetting all these languages), but to say that it’s not because I think other languages are necessarily better than English.
I’ve simply realized that for whatever reason, English isn’t incredibly good at expressing “true emotion”.
I realized this twice in one night, which is why Shannon’s been encouraging me to write this.
First, I was telling her about how much I “really, really enjoyed meeting Neville Hobson.” (yes, I reallly, really enjoyed meeting others as well)
It was while saying that that I realized how “not how I really felt” that “really, really” was.
(ps: yes, today is “rambling day”)
I realized that English simply isn’t actually very good at communicating the level of respect I have for several people I met this week, including Neville.
I think it’s because we use the “extremes” our language allows so readily in conversation. The fact that I had to say “really” twice to try and get my point across was sad.
Initially I didn’t think there were really any languages that made good use of respectful terms, but obviously there are.
Spanish, for example has a whole suite of them. German is very similar.
What’s my point?
Well, I wish I had words to express how much meeting many people this week meant. And I wish I had to words to tell my wife how much I truly love her.
January 31st, 2005 at 1:01 pm
No worries, we’ve got Euro-English.
January 31st, 2005 at 1:17 pm
Being a computer freak I belive in standardization for communication protocols… Everybody should speak the same language, because this would not limit the amount of people you could talk to. What language should that be? Maybe english is too flat, but it is the language most spoken. Verstheen Sie was Ich sage… Forstår du hva jeg sier? Forstår ni hva jag seier? The germans and french think that their language is the best and they ‘protest’ by ignoring to learn english.
January 31st, 2005 at 1:49 pm
Of course “really really” doesn’t fit the job. A better thing to say is “doubleplusgood”.
January 31st, 2005 at 2:08 pm
or “ubermuchso”?
That Euro-English thing was hilarious
.
January 31st, 2005 at 5:02 pm
not to be mean or anything, but you may want to open up a thesaurus. english is one of those languages with many words that are almost never used in ‘normal’ conversation. most people don’t take the time to learn new words and how to integrate them into everyday speaking. because of ‘lack of use’ many expressive (yes, arguably niche) words become obsolete; this pigeonholes many speakers because a wonderfully expressive term may have fallen to disuse.
i am a native engligh speaker, but i’ve lived in different countries and had to learn the common-speak to ‘get along’. i will readily admit that in other countries people just seem more expressive… on the other hand, there’s a kooky-ness to american english in how it seems to just suck in words and expressions from other countries. i really believe that people just don’t take the time to expand their vocabularies here in america. so maybe it’s not the language that’s crappy, but rather the vocabularies of the speakers…
January 31st, 2005 at 5:08 pm
Jeremy, the “really, really” is ok with me! Really
I think we’d have the same problem whatever the language, as in “mucho de verdad” as the rough equivalent of “really, really.” It might sound and look better in Spanish but it lacks that crappiness we all love in English, don’t you think??
By the way, Shel and I talked about you again in our weekly podcast today…
January 31st, 2005 at 6:45 pm
Jenn, entirely possible. But what would you suggest to actually tell someone how much you appreciate meeting them or to tell your wife how much you love her?
I can think of terms in Spanish, Italian, Latin and Russian that do all of these because they are “proper” and are meant for a certain level of respect.
February 1st, 2005 at 9:52 am
Maybe the problem isn’t language at all. Maybe the fact that your trying to tell someone how you feel in a single sentance was your mistake. We say things without meaning them too often also, which makes it harder to say things we mean when we mean them. “I love you” being so over used it has become as meaningful as “hello” and “goodbye”.
Crap, your rambling is cathing!
February 1st, 2005 at 9:53 am
er, sorry, catching.