Nov. 11th, 2008 10:13 pm
The curse of polygottalism
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I had a very pleasant lunch today with a coworker. (At the end she said, "That was very enjoyable. We almost didn't mention work at all!") At one point I wanted to tell her what kind of novel I was reading at home. I started to say "policier" but realised I needed another word because that wasn't English. But all I could think of as an alternative was "Krimi". After struggling for a bit, I finally just confessed my confusion and she said, "Detective fiction?" (Fortunately, she's the sympathetic sort who would never accuse me of showing off.)
Sehr geehrter Herr Polygott, (sic)
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Also, until just now, I thought Krimi to describe that book genre was a Hebrew term. Thanks for the unintentional correction.
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I trust you're doing what you can to make certain that Little S doesn't have it any easier than you did.
I can relate a bit
Some non-English words/phrases just make more "sense" in describing things to me: "cursing" in our home was "ludza boghski" (Slovak - "Lord God") or just "ludza" 'cause that's what my father grew up with.
From what Jack tells me, German has many exquisitely precise words (e.g. shaudenfreude (sp?).)
Re: I can relate a bit
(And it's Schadenfreude--though I confess, I like the idea of "Schauderfreude". That would be the kind of joy that gives you shivers!)
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