The Flavor of Words

When one becomes bilingual or multi-lingual, a strange thing happens. Words begin to have flavor. Certain words just taste better when said in certain languages. That is the only way to describe it...flavor.

For instance, English is a great language for technical words and for teaching concrete matters.

Spanish, is very emotive, full of strong feelings.

Ye'kwana is for description. The words often sound like what they mean.

Because of this, our home is full of a mixture of all three languages. A sort of smorgasbord of vocabulary, if you will. Pick and chose whichever your taste buds are desiring.

Some of my favorite words in one language just don't have a good translation into the other. Yes, you can translate it's meaning, but not it's flavor!

For instance, in Spanish, 'Animado'. Sure, it means excited or motivated but, doesn't 'animado' taste sooooo much better????? ' Animado' has texture and sweetness...like cotton candy.

Or the Venezuelan , 'Na'guara', I mean...Na'guara just oozes excitement and wonder! So much more flavorful than ,"WOW!" It tastes like caramel candy that sticks around on your teeth for awhile and you pick at it all day.

And then in Yekwana, one of my favorite words is....

get ready....

"Töwödäjööque!"

That words just rumbles around in your mouth and explodes out!

"Töwödäjööque!"

It's a great insult because it is so funny sounding, no one could take it too seriously.
"Töwödäjööque!" means 'ugly'. But when you say it, it tastes like a mouth full of red hots!!!!

And the word, "Soto". It means 'people', but not just any people. It means 'us', the tribe. And it is such a proud sounding word, "Soto"! Like biting into a piece of dark chocolate! Sharp, bitter, and needs nothing added!

English has some great words as well. One that just makes me giggle is, "Somebody"! Imagine how that sounds to a non -English speaking person! "Somebody" tastes like sparkling cider, it's a funny sort of fizzy words!

The word "logic" sounds so...'logical'! Boring. But necessary for life...like plain bread.

And lately, a tasty word in my mouth has been..."Politics", that sounds like a string of fire works!
It has a spicy taste like curry, fine in moderation, but don't go overboard with it!

Which makes me think of 'Democrat" which has a soury taste...like sauerkraut!!! And smells up the kitchen too!

What about "Republican"? It sounds like something solid and traditional. Tastes like a sour dough bread to me. Tough and strong enough to spread some jam or butter on it without it crumbling!

And speaking of flavors, in the words of Emiril Lagasse ...

BAMMM!

You Are Cayenne Pepper

You are very over the top and a bit overwhelming. You have a fiery personality, and you can give anyone a good jolt. You can easily take things up a couple notches, no matter what crowd you're running with.

What Spice Are You?

I am wondering if any other bilinguals feel this way about words, and if so, how about a word 'tasting'?

Share some words from your language with us so we can all have a taste! (NO PROFANITY!)

The Waiting Room

I have recently been spending a lot of time in various waiting rooms here in Paraguay and in one particular waiting room, I realized something. Paraguay is a unique kind of place.

I walk into the room, a small room which only seats about 10 people and on the walls and doors are signs and advertisements in Spanish. One would expect this. We are in the capital city of a South American country, after all.

Spanish looks like this: John 3:16 - Spanish
Porque tanto amó Dios al mundo, que dio a su Hijo unigénito, para que todo el que cree en él no se pierda, sino que tenga vida eterna.

After taking a seat, my husband and I each reach for magazines. The one he picks up happens to be in Portuguese. There are many Brazilians living in Paraguay and in the last office I was in an irate Brazilian woman was having a difficult time making herself understood. She would have enjoyed a Portuguese magazine, I suppose.The rest of us would have liked for her to have had a magazine to read!!!

To entertain ourselves, we read the Portuguese magazine. This is fairly simple to do as the written Portuguese resembles Spanish. I can understand some written Portuguese and did develop an ear for the language in the jungle because the only radio station we could pick up was Brazilian.

Portuguese looks like this: John 3:16 Porque Deus amou o mundo de tal maneira que deu o seu Filho unigênito, para que todo aquele que nele crê não pereça, mas tenha a vida eterna.

After working our way through that magazine, my husband gets up to inspect an open Bible on a stand across the room. This is a Christian doctor who is attached to the Baptist Hospital, so it is not surprising to find a Bible here. However, it is a German Bible. That makes perfect sense here because there are many German Mennonite immigrants and many frequent this doctors office as he is Mennonite as well.

My husband returns to his seat and begins to look at my magazine which also happens to be in German. We do not do as well in translating the German as we had done with the Portuguese. We give up and begin entertaining one another with outlandish possible translations of words which remind us of something in some other language.

German looks like this: John 3:16 - German
Denn so hat Gott die Welt geliebt, daß er seinen eingeborenen Sohn gab, damit jeder, der an ihn glaubt, nicht verloren gehe, sondern ewiges Leben habe

During all this time, it is quite common to hear a word or phrase of Guarani thrown around by the others in the area.

Guarani looks like this: John 3:16Tupf ¥andey ra ohayhu etere¡gui yvyp¢ra ku‚rape, ome'† va'ekue Ta'wra petexet‚, opa umi hese oyerovi va ani haguf o¤ehundi, oguereko haguf uvei pe tekove tapia guarf.

Finally, we are ushered in to see the doctor, where we converse in English, as he is Canadian.

The small waiting room was a microcosm of the country of Paraguay with all its various peoples, languages and cultures.

English looks like this: John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Para my bilingual Familia

"THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS"
Jim and Nita Lee (Dec. 1972)
'Twas the night before Christmas and all through the casa,
Not a creature was stirring -- Caramba! Que pasa?
Los ninos were tucked away in their camas,
Some in long underwear, some in pijamas,
While hanging the stockings with mucho cuidado
In hopes that old Santa would feel obligado
To bring all children, both buenos and malos,
A nice batch of dulces and other regalos.
Outside in the yard there arose such a grito
That I jumped to my feet like a fightened cabrito.
I ran to the window and looked out afuera,
And who in the world do you think that it era?
Saint Nick in a sleigh and a big red sombrero
Came dashing along like a crazy bombero.
And pulling his sleigh instead of venados
Were eight little burros approaching volados.
I watched as they came and this quaint little hombre
Was shouting and whistling and calling by nombre:
"Ay Pancho, ay Pepe, ay Cuco, ay Beto,
Ay Chato, ay Chopo, Macuco, y Nieto!"
Then standing erect with his hands on his pecho
He flew to the top of our very own techo.
With his round little belly like a bowl of jalea,
He struggled to squeeze down our old chiminea,
Then huffing and puffing at last in our sala,
With soot smeared all over his red suit de gala,
He filled all the stockings with lovely regalos --
For none of the ninos had been very malos.
Then chuckling aloud, seeming very contento,
He turned like a flash and was gone like the viento.
And I heard him exclaim, and this is verdad,
Merry Christmas to all, and Feliz Navidad!