What an interesting thing to say! I am convinced about something else though, the more words we have in a language the smarter we are because we struggle to be precise and this makes us more sophisticated. I learned this from my sat tutor and from an objective view I support the same idea.
That was a marvelous piece, and I'm planning on sharing it with the writers who work for me. I've got to try and remember that Dutch expression, particularly.
German has 'fremdschämen', which is our word for 'plaatsvervangende schaamte', only it's a verb rather than a substantive.
One of the differences between our languages - English and German - is that English is so used to lurking in dark alleys, beating up other languages, and rifling through their pockets for spare vocabulary, it doesn't seem to distinguish between foreign words and English words - at least that's how it seems. Therefore I have one huge English dictionary, but two German ones - 'German Spelling', and 'Foreign Words'.
I often know the meaning of German 'foreign words' because they are used as 'normal vocabulary' in English. Today's example was the word 'Friktion', which stems from Latin, but which I could explain to a friend, because I am familiar with the English word'friction', whereas an average German native speaker would know - and use - the German word 'Reibung', rather than knowing about the 'foreign word'.
So yeah, words. Awesome. Now I will try to come up with a German word for 'litost'.
oh... so this is why i randomly got like, 140 pageviews on that post yesterday.
well um.. hello! thank you! i am really flattered that you felt that post was worth linking to, to be honest, and i just realised i recognise your username from um, your comments the other day. but seriously, so remarkably flattered
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One of the differences between our languages - English and German - is that English is so used to lurking in dark alleys, beating up other languages, and rifling through their pockets for spare vocabulary, it doesn't seem to distinguish between foreign words and English words - at least that's how it seems.
Therefore I have one huge English dictionary, but two German ones - 'German Spelling', and 'Foreign Words'.
I often know the meaning of German 'foreign words' because they are used as 'normal vocabulary' in English. Today's example was the word 'Friktion', which stems from Latin, but which I could explain to a friend, because I am familiar with the English word'friction', whereas an average German native speaker would know - and use - the German word 'Reibung', rather than knowing about the 'foreign word'.
So yeah, words. Awesome. Now I will try to come up with a German word for 'litost'.
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well um.. hello! thank you! i am really flattered that you felt that post was worth linking to, to be honest, and i just realised i recognise your username from um, your comments the other day. but seriously, so remarkably flattered
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