11 messages over 2 pages: 1 2
Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6551 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish
| Message 9 of 11 02 April 2014 at 12:07pm | IP Logged |
I'm starting to think of myself as a linguistic healer. I resolve the concerns that "my native language is stupid for doing X", by explaining which other languages have this phenomenon and that different from English absolutely doesn't mean stupid.
1 person has voted this message useful
| Fuenf_Katzen Diglot Senior Member United States notjustajd.wordpress Joined 4323 days ago 337 posts - 476 votes Speaks: English*, German Studies: Polish, Ukrainian, Afrikaans
| Message 10 of 11 02 April 2014 at 11:32pm | IP Logged |
I think I understand what you're saying, and I would agree that there are some thoughts and emotions that have a greater impact in one language versus another. The way I've come to experience this is through music, in the sense that culturally and socially you're implicitly expected to have certain reactions to a particular set of lyrics or text. So I think sometimes it's hard to fully feel everything. I just heard a beautiful version this past year of a woman singing "O Holy Night" in Yoruba, which is a language I don't understand. Now, obviously, I know the text to the song pretty well, so I have a vague idea of what she would have been saying. But without knowing anything about the language, there was something about that particular text that was very touching in a way that other languages hadn't been able to achieve (and normally I don't even like that particular song!). I have no idea if this makes any sense, but sometimes I wonder if a language that isn't a common one, or that you don't even understand can bring about a true emotional reaction because you're not confined to social expectations associated with language.
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| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5182 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French
| Message 11 of 11 03 April 2014 at 4:40am | IP Logged |
Well then, it seems political commentary is acceptable. Good to know.
1 person has voted this message useful
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