!Que hot fun policies!
Today I finished my first week in Spanish immersion courses. Every afternoon I felt deeply tired, and almost non-verbal. As I told my instructor today: tres palabras en inglés, treinta palabras en español. Or la ruta en español es muy curbosa; la ruta en inglés es directa.
When I do not have the right words, which is all the time, I use euphemisms and humor. I would say something like, “I am trying to be funny.” Today my instructor told me that the word for “fun” and for “funny” is the same: divertido. There are reflexive verb forms and adjectives and many options with this word, but still the ideas were fundamentally joined. I thought this was unbelievable — and also mortified that I was effectively telling people to like me: “I AM TRYING TO BE FUN!” Fun and funny are not the same; plenty of things are one and not the other.
Sí, humor negro, he said.
And then it happened again. We asked about the word for warmth, in the middle of a discussion about the difference between Pacific and Caribbean sea temperatures. Caliente can be used for hot and for warm, he explained. No. How could this be possible? This is a country that should have seventeen words for the degrees of heat, types of heat, dry or wet, how it made you feel.
Como abrazos, I said, como sentimientos para su familia. Como la luz de leña.
That might have thrown him a bit.
Ah, he said. Tibio, he said. Tepid?
Earlier in the week, another teacher explained that the word for policy and politics — two things that are dangerous to confuse — is the same: políticas.
What! My school dedicated four pages alone to political vocabulary!
Page 1 of 4 of Political Vocabulary, from Centro Panamericano de Idiomas
Many wonderful podcasts and articles discuss the unique meanings that one language or culture captures just right — the Portguese have their longing with saudade, the Germans with intellectual weltanschauen zeitgeist and ümwelt; or Bantu languages with important socio-politcal concepts like ubuntu, which reflect culture. From Mugumbate, J. & Nyanguru, A. “Exploring African Philosphy: The Value of Ubuntu in Social Work,” African Journal of Social Work, 3(1), August 2013:
[Ubuntu] means that in African philosophy, an individual is human if he or she says I participate, therefore I am. In Western aphorism, Hailey (2008) argued that the individual is expected to say I think, therefore I am.
But what does it mean when a language does not have a specific texture— how do contexts and phrasing begin to balance that lack of layered meanings in the individual words? This is a form of lingual ubuntu, the way words meet together, the power of a perfect sentence.
As my lovely friend revealed to me recently, she feels as though she is a different person when she speaks a language because of the cumulative context of where she lived and learned this language. I wonder how this will be true for me too, that learning this language will change who I become, who I am, here.
Of course, por supuesto, there is a word for warm.
The word is cálido. And in emotional terms, warmth and affection, one could say calidez y afecto.
In Portguese this is even more resonant a phrase: calor e carinho.
Today I also became lucky enough to be on the team for wonderful online tool that costs nothing and is simple generosity: the Appreciation Effect.
The idea is something like this: Drew and Douglas made a tool that is online, free, simple, and is only for the purpose of helping people communicate gratitude to one another. A person can set up a system where notes of appreciation are given to a particular person from a community of friends and family, one message at a time.
How do we add more value to the experience so that more people will use it and share it with others?
Check it out >> while I start an Instagram account.
Con abrazos, calidez, y afecto —
