Pizza.

When I'm talking in Korean, and if I need to use a foreign word, generally, I try to pronounce it the way Koreans pronounce it. MacDonald becomes meckdonaldu and butter becomes buttoh.
However, some words get pronounced closer to their English pronunciation, sometimes without my awareness.

One of those words is pizza. Koreans write it 피자 which could be roughly transcribed as peejah. Apparently, they pronounce it like that, too, but I didn't notice it, and pronounced it 핏짜, intensifying the second consonant (like "cha"). Somebody pointed it out to me once and I was surprised.

Maybe to me, it was like pronouncing 자장면 (black bean noodles, written "Jahjarngmyon") 짜장면 (common pronunciation, "Chahjarngmyon"). Who knows.

Young + 젊은 = 엶은

So this morning I was dreaming,
I was with a group of people climbing a mountain
I was walking with my grandma (Dad's side)
and telling her about a movie
this movie had two protagonists,
I started with the older one
and then I wanted to tell her about the younger one
and at this point, when I wanted to say the word "young" in Korean
what came out of my mouth was something like "yulmun (열믄/엶은)"
and since I realized that this was not a real word, I repeated it several times
until the correct form finally came to me, "chulmun (젊은)."

Luckily, shortly after that, my alarm went off and I was able to remember this dream (as I believe that only interrupted dreams get remembered).

I have two possible explanations for this crosslinguistic word blending.
1. The English word "young" interfered with my Korean word retrieval.

2. The ambiguous nature of the consonant "ㅈ" (ch in word-initial positions but actually similar to j) confused me. For example, the "j" in German is pronounced like "y" in English, the "y" or "ll" in Spanish is pronounced like the "j" in English" in some parts.

1 is more likely than 2, and it is also possible that they both contributed to this error in my dream. I'm still rather amazed that this sort of thing happens in dreams at all.


Also, when I was describing the older protagonist to my grandma, I was telling her that he is going over to North Korea and will meet somebody named "Chu Gil Sang." While I said this word, I had "Chow Yun-Fat" in mind, but believed that "Chu Gil Sang" was his name. And as I said it, I realized that "Chu Gil Sang" sounds like "죽일상" which can be roughly translated to "a killer's look" and wondered what kind of a name that was, and why I hadn't realized it before.

Of course, after I woke up, I remembered that the actor's name is "Chow Yun-Fat," the Korean pronunciation being "Chu Yun Ball" and wondered where did that killer face name came from, and was surprised that I noticed the pun in that name at all because I normally don't notice those things unless somebody else points them out to me (usually my husband).

Dreams are intriguing.

Trunk or treat?

Is "trick" such a horrible word that Christians have to come up with a neutral substitute?

The significance of having learned German before English

When I see a word I don't know how to pronounce, what comes out usually is how Germans would read it.

My grapheme-to-phoneme rule for things written in the Roman alphabet is German by default, it appears.

I realized this when I started graduate school, as I was getting familiar with the dual-route models of reading (that you can either convert the letters into sounds or just directly get the meaning of the word through its whole printed form). Since then, being aware of the fact that I have a tendency of reading new words with a German pronunciation has helped me correct my pronunciation consciously, but if I'm not thinking about it, I still make mistakes.

Recent example: Conoco.
COnoco, not coNOco.

Soledad

Sometimes I have a word or a phrase stuck in my head kinda like a song getting stuck in your head and playing over and over. It just comes to me at random moments, without any apparent triggers. They just come and go.

This time, it's "soledad."

I think it's a pretty word, though its meaning is rather melancholy. I know I generally like words ending with "-dad." Come to think of it, I did like words ending with "-heit" or "-keit" as well. Not so much for the English "-ness," however, but then again, I never really liked English to begin with.

I just like the sound of it, "soledad." It's soft, it's calm, and if the meaning wasn't too depressing, I probably would consider naming my daughter that one day.

Along with this word, the song currently playing endlessly in my head is "Caraluna" by Bacilos. It is fun to mouth the lyrics. I guess I generally like the sound of Spanish. It's fun, and it's pretty.

Mientras tenga que cambiar la radio de estación por que cada canción me hable de ti, de ti, de ti~

Today's word error

So I had a moment of duh!!!! regarding one of the current projects in the lab, and as I was trying to convey my feelings to a friend, I stopped mid-word as I was mouthing "revelization." A blend of "revelation" and "realization", just like "ginormous" is a blend of "gigantic" and "enormous."

Honey legs and chocolate abs...

(I thought the literal translation of 꿀벅지 would be "honey thighs" or "nectarous femurs" or something along these variations... all them sweet legs)

Apparently, one of the girls from the oh so many girl groups in the Korean pop music industry is often called "honey legs" because her upper leg portions look... delectable. ... I don't see what's so special about her legs, but then again, I normally don't notice things like that. (Do think that she looks cute, but that's mainly because her face resembles that of a cat...)

When I first saw the explanation that the phrase alludes to the uncouth desire to lick that body part so close to the private quarters, I did cringe a bit. Did think that it was vulgar and gross, and felt a bit sorry for the cute little girl whose legs were so openly coveted by her fans(?). Then again I guess she (or at least her boss) might enjoy the extra attention.

However, at the same time, I was also amazed at the novelty of the expression. It sounds rather creative.

Then I also encountered its apparent counterpart, "chocolate abs," referring to those hard, chiseled six-packs that you can appreciate in the boy groups of the same industry. (I guess movies like "300" and "Troy" display many of them, too, but again, I did not notice when I was watching. I guess I'm more interested in hair than muscle.)

Here, the more popular explanation seems to be the one that attributes the phrase to the shape of chocolate bars rather than the taste of them, meaning that it is not as sexually explicit as "honey legs." But I guess chocolate and honey both being sweet eatable things, some people may consider the two phrases the same. Not my concern.

I was just merely awed by the fact that people come up with such ingenuous expressions, though some of them can make you uncomfortable. Too much information.


Another area where I find such creative new uses of words is the world of cat lovers. Now, in English, we have lolcats. I can has cheezburger. They are even rewriting the Bible in lolcat style. They are my bag of weed. Seriously.

Korean cat lovers, on the other hand, have come up with their own word-meaning associations used for describing cats and other cat-related things that shows how leet their love for their cats are.

Tuxedo/cow (black and white), socks (paws colored differently from the body), sweet rice buns (white paws), baking bread (sitting with front paws tucked in), lap cat (sits/sleeps on your lap), potatoes (urine+sand), and various onomatopoeia to refer to some typical behaviors that cats show. So cute. Cheesy? Yes, but still, cute.
Even death is euphemized by the expression, "crossing the rainbow bridge."
Such imagination, such insight to find similar imageries! Something I can't do very well because I'm usually stuck with the dictionary definitions of words. I don't deviate very well from well established conventions. I'm too chicken for that.


Ah well.
To each his/her own.

My job, my arse.

I forget the exact context of this conversation, but I was explaining to my husband that the word jigjarng in Korean means "job." To be more precise, it is the place where you work. As I explained it to him, I remembered the less frequent meaning of this word, as it is a homonym if written in Korean. I explained that it is the last part of the intestines, the rectum. He kinda chuckled, and added, "That makes sense."

Sorry seems to be the hardest word...

Seriously, I don't get apologies. I don't really know what they really mean.

Korean: Mian* literally would mean "not in peace," so I guess it means my mind/heart is not in peace because of whatever I have done.

Jeusong* seems to mean "embarrassed because of a sin," admitting that I have committed something that makes me feel embarrassed.

English: Sorry. Adjectival form of sorrow, perhaps? I don't quite grasp when it is appropriate to say "I'm sorry" and when it is not. Some times you say it when you did something wrong, but then other times you also say it when someone else is going through a hard time. So a component of sympathy there, but doesn't it kinda sound like it is my fault that that person's in misery? That's why, when my hubby complains about having a bad day and I say to him, "I'm sorry to hear that," he replies, "It's not your fault." ..so confusing.

Apology. Though now it seems to refer mostly to certain speech or gesture that expresses acknowledgment of one's fault, shame, and regret, the origin of the word is more like an explanation, excuse, or justification. Not exactly what I would want to hear if somebody wronged me. I don't care why you did it!!! I'm angry that you did it!!! You'd better show some respect for MY feelings!!! ...I guess in the process of expressing regret, explaining how it happened, how it wasn't intentional, etc., may play a part in reconciling the parties involved, but.. the most important thing would be for the culprit to admit that s/he did something wrong, not try to justify his/her actions.

Spanish: Lo siento. "I feel it." I feel what?! Feelings of remorse, regret, repentance? Lo siento mucho.

Sometimes you just skip the admitting part and jump to asking for forgiveness. Perdón, or perdóname seems to be used more than forgive me but I don't know. Haven't been in a Spanish speaking environment for a while. Then there are uses where it seems more like a polite excuse me so it's literal meaning seems too strong.

German: Don't remember enough to really differentiate between Entschuldigung and tut mir Leid. Tut mir Leid kinda feels like me da pena for some reason though.


I kinda get the impression that saying sorry involves a wide spectrum of emotions including shame, embarrassment, regret, remorse, but often is also just used as a polite gesture without any meaning. I know I have used it so. Sometimes I feel bad about it, but I'm self-centered like that. Too busy with my own business.

I guess I sometimes get angry at people who just simply say "sorry" when they offend me somehow and resume the offense.. often by not changing what they do. Then they didn't mean that. They just said it to be polite, but they aren't really "sorry." I guess there is no reason for them to be considerate to me, but to maintain a polite facade while continuing the offense... argh. I guess I'm just too sensitive about things like that. Like I deserve only honesty. Like I'm not a hypocrite.

Still.
Sorry is one of the hardest words for me.

Hebrew baby names?

Yesterday was the last day to use our coupon from the Half-Priced Bookstore, so we went there after dinner. They had some clearance books outside the store, and we looked through them before we went in. I found a coffee table book of cats for $3. My husband found a book of baby names in Hebrew.

Since I normally throw possible future baby names at my husband every now and then, he proceeded to randomly pick a page and throw a name to me this time. It happened to be "Matar," meaning "rain." When he pronounced it, I just thought it sounded funny, but when I saw the spelling in the page, my reaction was, "to kill?" His response: "Your Mom would love it!"

Yes, my mother is a religious nut and does occasionally express her suspicion that my husband is a Satan-worshiper and has me corrupted with his dark nature and (to our dismay) attempts to rescue me from my sinful life. To name our child something that means "to kill" in Spanish may convince her that we really are burning in hell, but we could then just show her this book and get away with it!

Nah, not worth it.

The "F" word.

Went to a Car Dealer just to browse as our cars are falling apart (both cars' check engine light had come on yesterday) and we're tired of duct-taping them and fancied dreaming about getting a newer car.

The place we went was a Toyota place, and the person who greeted us saw our Ford and said that it's the "F word." ...I didn't catch it when he said it, only as we were coming home my hubby mentioned that he thought the person was rude, and I was kinda dumbfounded.

I can see the phonetic similarity between "Ford" and "F word," and under other circumstances would have found it hilarious, but hey.. that stings.


In "Spanish Apartment (L'auberge espagnole)," the British girl finds out that the French people refer to the school (university) as "la fac (short for la faculté)" and because of the similarity to the sound of the F word, started to use it instead of the English word for school.

When I watched that movie a few years ago, I didn't think the sound was that close, but then, when I watched "District 9" just couple weeks ago, (and BTW this movie probably had the most utterances of the F word I have heard in a movie) the South African actor's pronunciation sounded pretty close to the French word (no pun intended).


While I personally don't like to use the F word (usually just literally say "F word" or euphemize it with "freaking" instead of the real word), I am intrigued by how people use swear words and what effects they have on the psychology of both the people who say them and the people who hear them. Then again it's more on the realms of emotion and in cognitive science, emotion is still rater... hm.. hard to fathom, at least for me. (The professor I'm TAing for who currently teaches cognitive psychology declared to his students' dismay that he won't talk about emotions in his class.)

Words to have powers, though. Some day I may level up enough in my word geekness and be able to tackle it.

Frankfurt. Wiener.

So my hubby and I went to watch the Inglourious Basterds (got the spelling wrong in the previous post as Tarantino has to do it in his style :P) and oh I loved it. Some day I'll have to learn French. The main villain is a polyglot!! Automatically assumes the position of the best villain in my book.

Any way, there is a scene where a British guy is speaking German and the Nazis notice his funny accent. The Nazi can tell that one Basterd is from Frankfurt and the other from München, but the British guy... from whence?

So after the movie, I tell my hubby that while I could tell that the British guy's accent was a bit off, I could not distinguish between Frankfurt and München (and I lived in Frankfurt for 3.5 years). My hubby chuckled to this. So I proceeded to ask him why. His response was that the word "Frankfurt" reminds him of hot dog.

Oh yeah, it has always bugged me how the word "Wiener" is used to refer to... um.. you know.

Didn't really realize until then that those proper nouns that to me ring the tune of "Nun ade du mein lieb Heimatland" (k, Wien wasn't my home but was my parents' favorite place for vacation) are mainly linked with images of sausages to Americans. How unromantic. And my husband's family name rhymes with "Wiener."


Got me hungry for Leberwurst. Seufz.

Hollywood, a compound word?

(My dissertation is going to be on compound words, so I'm kinda obsessed with the subject)

I love watching movies. Tonight, I'm going to see Inglorious Bastards. Just couple weeks ago, I was overly excited about District 9. And, while reading up just about anything I could find about this so un-Hollywood movie from South Africa, I realized that the word "Hollywood" is actually two words: holly and wood.

I guess when the area got named there may have been a lot of holly trees there, but today, most people would probably just think of the American movie industry when they hear the word. At least I know that this was the first time for me to consciously access "holly" and "wood" from this proper name.

It's like when I first realized that the word "wardrobe" means a ward for robes, only, the meanings of the words "holly" and "wood" have nothing to do with what "Hollywood" stands for nowadays. It's not really a compound word. Just like Blackberry isn't a fruit.

Will need to add more words that can be further divided that no longer serve their literal meanings here.

English and Spanish, Europe and America

Coming home from school, for no apparent reason, I started to wonder whether the difference between Spanish spoken in Spain and Spanish spoken in Mexico is comparable to the difference between English spoken in Britain and English spoken in the U.S.A.

My initial thought was that they are not the same. But then, I couldn't really explain to myself why. It was just a personal, subjective, probably emotional reaction.

It may be because the difference between Spain and Mexico seems to be more regular and systematic than the difference between England and USA. The pronunciation for "c/z" or the use of "vosotros/usted," for example. But then, my exposure to Spain Spanish is very limited, and once I hear more, I may give in and say they are just as chaotic as the British (j/k).

It could also be about the fact that Mexico is only one of the many Spanish speaking countries whereas.. well, I guess there is also Canada and Australia and New Zealand and other places that speak English.. hm...

And then even within Mexico, you have a variety of accents... just as the U.S.A. does. And in the USA, you even have the two languages fused into Spanglish. Some Hispanic people in the States speak a kind of Spanish that is a direct translation of English. They use expressions like "me volví atras" to mean "I went back," for example.

I guess I don't know where I was going with this. Just thought that it is interesting that a language can vary so much over places and still be somewhat communicable. Yeah, I laughed the first time I heard a Spanish person say "tienes razón" because it sounded like "ratón" to me, but hey, I'm sure my Spanish (which has a generic mexican accent) sounds funny to a Spaniard just as well.

My brother hung out with friends from South America like Chile and Argentina when he was in college. When he came home (in Mexico) for the breaks, his Spanish had been contaminated with his friends' accents. My Dad would give him a hard time for "speaking funny," and he would not even realize that he was speaking with a different accent until we pointed it out to him. I guess if you are doing it, you don't notice it yourself.

Sad thing is, while I do somewhat ok in detecting accents in English and Spanish, I don't know much about Korean accents. Don't know which accent is from Chonlado and which accent is Gyeongsangdo. I can only tell whether it is Seoul accent or not. My Korean itself is deteriorating, too, which is also rather sad. Ah well. At least I can still read and (somewhat) write.


I guess there is no reason to really compare the two languages any way. They are all different. There is history and localization and culture and all that stuff..

Went to the Jew, er, I mean, zoo.

Yes, I did go to a real zoo, and it reminded me of an anecdote I heard from someone else.

This someone else is from the U.S.A. and speaks English as his native language, but is also interested in Korean and knows about the sounds, letters, and even a few words in Korean. He was friends with a Korean couple and, one day, he let them babysit his daughter. At the end of the day, when the Korean couple brought his daughter back, he asked them what they did. They replied, "We went to the Jew."

My friend was startled, wondering whether there was a famous Jewish person visiting town or something, and asked, "What Jew?"
The Koreans started explaining, "You know, the place with the animals.." and then my friend remembered that in Korean, the sound that English-speakers associate with the letter "z" does not exist. He knew that before, but at the time, because the pronunciation they gave was so close to an already existing word in English, his mind automatically linked what he heard with what meaning it is normally associated with.

It's like, when you're spell-checking something you write, some of the typos don't get caught because they do spell existing words, just not what you intended. I mix up "their" and "there" or "your" and "you're" a lot, for example.

If it had been a different word that does not make a word in English when the z is replaced by a j, say, a "jebra" instead of a "zebra," my friend would have immediately understood that the Koreans meant to say "zebra." However, when the mispronounced word sounds like another word that is in one's mental word collection, that word is gonna jump up and down and scream, "That's me!!" even if the rest of the context doesn't make much sense.

There are a few minimal pairs where such confusions could lead to embarrassment. Many Koreans and Japanese do not distinguish the sounds "r" and "l." Say then mean to say "election" and they pronounce it with an "r." Or, I had a classmate in high school who couldn't produce the long "ee" sound in "sheet" and the vowel always came out too short.


In such cases, paying attention to the context would be the key for resolving the confusion. Although ignoring the voice of the misidentified word in your mind is not that easy...

The kinds of words I've collected

I was born in South Korea. Naturally, Korean words were the first ones I collected.
Korean words can be divided into pure Korean words, Chinese-character-derived Korean words, and other foreign-derived words.

I also spent part of my childhood in Germany. Thus I collected some German words, and they are mostly elementary.

The later part of my teen years were spent in Costa Rica and Mexico. Hence some Spanish words got added to the mix as well. During the transition between Costa Rica and Mexico, there was also some confusion because they have different word usages and accents.

And now I am somewhat settled in the U.S. of A. I had been collecting English words before I came over to the States though, as I had to take classes in English in high school. You could say English is my dominant language now, as my Korean has been declining.


Also, my mom had sent me to calligraphy lessons when we lived in Korea, and later, I had a major crush on an actor from Hong Kong, and thus started collecting words in Chinese as well. Though my crush spoke mainly Cantonese, the show he was on was from Taiwan, so I learned the Mandarin version of the pronunciations associated with the Chinese characters. I still think Chinese is a beautiful, poetic language, but I don't think I'd ever learn enough to be fluent in it. The tones are way beyond my phonetic capabilities. (In other words, I'm not willing to practice.)

During my teen years, I was introduced to the world of Japanese animations, and in order to sing along their theme songs, I learned how to read Japanese (a wonderful language in terms of its complicated orthographic system, with 3 or more types of writing). With my partial knowledge of Chinese characters, I can make (though very limited) sense out of Japanese text.

I also took two semesters of French in high school, although those words quickly got overwritten by Spanish, and two semesters of Latin in college. The similarity to Spanish helped me a lot in learning Latin, but it was still very complicated. I still have a copy of the first Harry Potter book in Latin, and some day wish to finish reading it.


If given the opportunity, I would like to learn more languages, but I don't know if it would be practical at all. I'm rather lazy, and often need to be motivated by other factors.. love for a particular author or TV show. Television was a great tool for collecting words in my case. Books and the internet, too.



The problem with collecting words in different languages is that you don't get to reach the depth of a language a monolingual does with his/her own language. The saying, "Jack of all trades, master of none" applies here just as well. While I say my native language is Korean, my Korean is far inferior to that of somebody my age at my education level who spent all his/her life in Korea. Same with English, which is my dominant language now. I still ask my husband (who is a native speaker of English and used to be fluent in Spanish but not any more) for the meaning of this saying or that word that I encounter in our everyday life. (True, part of it is not necessarily linguistic but rather cultural, but still.)

Some electronic appliances come with instructional manuals in multiple languages. Generally, they repeat the same instructions in different languages. Imagine that there is a handbook that has different chapters written in different languages. The installation is written in Korean, the programming is written in English, the additional features are in German, the troubleshooting part is in Spanish... though there may be parts that overlap, some parts are exclusively written in just one language. That is what I feel like I am. Other monolinguals are handbooks written in one language for the whole thing. I'm rather patchy and incomplete.

Then again, I have come to enjoy my unstable state of language. It allows me to compare and contrast the different uses of words, how people express similar ideas differently, etc., etc. It is a perpetual challenge to understand what is being said and how to say what I have in mind, how to weave the words to make my communication most effective, how to revise what has already been said, and so on and so forth. It is a game I play with myself, if I have enough working memory at the moment.

Bank and Gift

The word "bank" is one of the most commonly used examples of ambiguous words. By ambiguous words I mean words that have more than one meaning. In the case of "bank," it could refer to a financial institution or part of land by a river.

To me, the level of ambiguity for the string of letters "BANK" is higher. That is because "Bank" is also a word in German and also has more than one meaning. Bank can also mean a place where you store or loan money, or it can mean a bench.

True, the pronunciation is different, and even in written form, the German Bank always starts with a capital letter whereas that's not always the case in English (unless it is part of a proper noun or starts a sentence). Still the abstract form of the printed word is the same between the two languages, and I often find myself activating all three meanings I have associated with this particular combination of four letters.

Part of the reason may be because the German word Bank was one of the first words I learned when I started learning German. My father was working at a bank at the time, so, in case somebody asked me what my Dad did, I learned the word to be able to respond correctly. I do not recall if I ever got asked such question though.

Also, dwelling long enough in that memory of my childhood in Germany, I also see this picture of a long bench right by a ginkgo tree full of yellow ginkgo leaves. I think that was the bench at the bus stop that we frequently used when my family lived in Germany.


There is another word that I remember that shares the same printed form in German and English, but does not share its meaning. Gift in German means poison, whereas in English... well, I guess there have been occasions when people did send poisoned gifts to their enemies, but generally, gift is something positive and pleasant that you "give" to someone.

I remember finding an English Christian comic book that my mom had and the cover portrayed a grown-up person (don't remember if it was a man or a woman) lifting up a baby to the sky. The cover said "The Gift" and as I did not speak any English at the time, I wondered if the baby was poisoned and the grown-up's face was showing emotions of horror and sadness. Now that I think about it, I guess the "gift" was referring to baby Jesus and the person lifting him up was actually full of joy. Couldn't tell from the serious art style though.

When I started learning English, I remember that every time I encountered the word "gift," my heart gave a small jolt. In the case of this word, not only is the spelling the same, but the sound of the word is the same between German and English. And the primary meaning associated to this sound/letter combination was "poison," and I had strong emotional reactions to that. However, over the years of speaking and listening mostly in English and not having enough activity in German, my brain started to habituate... or, the new meaning of English started to overwrite the old German meaning. Now I don't think of poison when I see or hear the word unless I make a conscious effort.

Friends

The word "friend" may at first seem like a universal concept. You can easily find a word corresponding to it in another language: Freund, amigo, 친구, 朋友, 友達...

However, it may not be easy to notice that while these words may all refer to somebody close, somebody one knows and hangs out a lot, they do not cover the same kind of relationships across the cultures. Some cultures are more selective about befriending than others.

I realized it one summer when I went home from college and was telling my mother in Korean about the friends I had made at college. I was telling her about one particular friend, who was a year older than me, and then it hit me: Although I was referring to her as my friend (친구), if we had both been Koreans, I would not have called her one. I would have called her "an upperclasswoman I know (아는 여자 선배)" or "an older girl at my school I know (아는 학교 언니)."

In Korea, people like hierarchy. It would be chaos not to know who's above whom because you can't determine what is the rightful way of addressing others - do I talk in formal or informal mode to them? What if I get slighted by somebody who should be paying more respect to me? How do I make sure I don't offend somebody by using the wrong kind of language?
There are many different ways of determining status difference, and one of the common standards is age, often coupled with seniority.

What this means, is that since the concept of "friend" often implies "peer status," for Koreans, it is often limited to include only people born in the same (lunar calendar) year as them. Somebody older than me can't possibly be my friend, others will see me as a rude, insolent brat! Somebody younger than me can't possibly be my friend, my own status will be undermined!

Of course, you could have a good, close relationship with somebody who wasn't born in your year that is similar to what an American would call friendship. However, you don't want to call it friendship unless both parties talk about it and agree to do so. Usually, it would be the generosity of the older person to grant the "friend" status to the younger one. Without that, if the younger one started to refer to the older one as a "friend," the older one might be offended and may feel the need to put the younger one in his/her place.

Then again, if people are aware of the status difference, the relationship does take up other qualities besides that of usual friendships. For example, if you go out to eat, the older person often feels like he/she should treat the younger person. The younger person always needs to use the right words when addressing the older person. ..I guess I don't know what else there is.. at least not off the top of my head for the moment. I think generally, there is a certain distance that comes with age difference that most people don't bother to cover and stay aloof to each other by default.

I personally prefer to keep my "friend" criteria as open as possible, but when I interact with people from different cultures, I have to remind myself that some may not want to be too chummy chummy with me. Then again, I'm too shy and socially awkward to make friends easily anyway.

¿Mande?

When somebody just talks to you and you don't catch what was being said, what do you say?
"Excuse me?"
"Pardon?"
"Could you say that one more time?"
etc., etc.

but not something like "Your order?" though?

However, if you're in Mexico, that's what people often say when they didn't hear what you said the first time. "¿Mande?" which means roughly "Your order?" kinda like "At your service, sir/ma'am."

The explanation I got from somebody (I don't remember specifically who by now but a Mexican) was that when the Spaniards took over, they killed the local people at the slightest mistakes, so the local people could not admit that they did not understand what was said to them, bothering the Spaniards with having to repeat themselves.

This was the explanation also given to me for why things never get done on time in Mexico. If you ask for a service, even if they are not able to fulfill your request the way you want it, they can't say no. That would have been another death sentence from your Spanish Lord. Or maybe it's just a face-saving thing, where you can't admit that you lack the resources or capabilities to do your client's bidding. That would bring shame. Partial or late fulfillment is better than an outright refusal.

I don't know how true this interpretation is, but the fact that such an explanation exists reflects the tragedy of what the Europeans did to native Americans.

Now "Mande" is just a saying embedded in the context. Even among people who are on tutear (peer) terms, they don't conjugate it to "Manda." It's still third person singular (honorific), "Mande."

What is the difference betwen a lid and a cap?

They both seem to have the same function, but why are there two words?

So far my internal imageries associated with these two words suggest that a lid is flatter than a cap, and a cap may be screwed on. But not always though?

Acquired taste.

When I cook something Korean and dare my NorthAmerican friends to try it, one of the common responses I get is "It's an acquired taste." I often interpret that to mean "I don't like it, but I'll be polite to you."

If I think a little more on the expression than usual, however, I take a little more offense than most people, too, because it almost sounds like, "If I took the time to become familiar with it, I may like it, but I don't have the desire to. You're not worth the effort."

Yeah I used to be depressed, and still have self-victimizing tendencies that work really well in tinting the world in a negative light.

But then, what kind of responses DO I want from my brave friends?

"Interesting!" is rather overused, but I guess it's safe.

"Different" gets bonus points for honesty.

Can't think of any for the moment. Will need to update when I think of more.


Of course, if they like it, they can say that, too.

Words, my friends!

As long as I can remember
I liked to contemplate the choices of words I spoke.
This may be partly why I'm such a slow speaker.

Also, often times I would reconsider what I spoke after the utterance has come out.
"Was it really my best choice? Oh, I should have put it this way! Next time, I should use this word. No, that word!"

Another habit was to identify their equivalents in another language. If I'm speaking English, I may on the side have a search function for it in Korean running in the back of my mind. If I'm speaking Korean, I may be also thinking about how I'd express that in Spanish. Some times, if there is really a direct, interchangeable counterpart, it brings great joy to me to have found it. It's a little silly mind game I play with myself.

Then of course, my chosen career is about studying words and how they work in our minds. Words ARE very important to me.

So here it is, my stab at mixing them somewhat to explore what I can do with them in this vast world wide web.

I guess it'll be mostly in English, but may try other languages, too.

Just temporary snapshots of the ever-changing, chaotic state of my mind.