Random Thoughts

[Gravdigr]

Sleep. Fuck it, who needs it.

[infinite monkey]

Jezus, can anyone else talk?

[Gravdigr]

What'sthatnow?

[infinite monkey]

Heh, just a random thought.

[Gravdigr]

[DanaC]

I really love the German language. Always have. It's my favourite foreign language - I love its quirkiness, it's poetry and the way it feels to speak. I was watching this video about awesome German words that have no direct equivalent in English and which capture or express complex and specific feelings. I've heard it said many times that German is particularly well-qualified for capturing these difficult to express concepts and emotions. The same is often said of French - where a singlre word can capture whole something that English can't express.

I think there's a high degree of bollox to that. But I do not French to argue it in any kind of informed way :P I think the hang up on single words being able to express these complex and poetic concepts is missing the point when it comes to English - what we have isa language of ridiculous flexibility in expression and structure. You can play around with word order and meaning in staggering ways in English and still be coherent in a way that would collapse a sentence in many other languages. That it might take several words to say what another language could express in one doesn't make it less able to express that concept. For instance: Luftschloss = sky castle = unrealistic dream. That can be expressed in English - castles in the sky - and we all know what that means. Zeitgeist = time ghost = spirit of the time

But anyway - my point- inasmuch as I have one is that the video of awesome German words is pretty cool. But the only reason they are able to express these complex things in a single word is that they essentially just crush several words or a sentence together and call it a single word :P Which, it has to be said, is one of the things I love about German.

[busterb]

there is a word, in German which means to screw something up. to fix things that don't need fixing. I spent 2 1/2 years in Germany. And could talk and read a newspaper.

[Spexxvet]

The US should stop producing oil. Then, when the rest of the world has run dry, we be the only source, bitches. Because he who controls the spice oil, controls the world.

[DanaC]

I'd have loved to spend some time in Germany when I was in my late 20s and learning the language. I was pretty good at it, though I have forgotten 90% or more of what I learned. I took classes at the Goethe Institute in Manchester for a couple of years. Our tutor was awesome. I'd always loved the german language, but he brought in so much of the cultural side as well.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Brits have the untranslatable words, that mean something only to them, in that rhyming slang.

[DanaC]

Every language has concepts that they capture with a word or short phrase that doesn't quite directly translate because of the layered nature of language and meaning. But setting aside the incredible differences between wholly unrelated language types, in which there are such deep cultural differences that we conceive the world in entirely different terms - such as cultures in which temporal relationships are not a part of language - there's generally a pretty close equivalent to get across the same feeling or concept most of the time,and I don't think any of the european languages are superior to others in their ability to capture and express the sense of a thing.

[xoxoxoBruce]

When it comes to expressing sophisticated, suave, or romantic thoughts, foreign languages excel because they sound so... foreign.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Originally Posted by BigV

Whenever Twil's lost, helpless and confused in bed, I always advise her to seize the pen. The story's never the same, but it almost *always* comes to a happy ending.

Recommended, five stars.

Wow, that's really kinky.


As long as I'm here, some sage advice...

[infinite monkey]

Are hashtags as a Cellar post add-on trending? Do these comments make it to Teh Tweeterz? Or are they just a new-fangled twist on the old way of pretending there is a smilie to accompany your post?

:ihatehashtagssmilie: <---- Like so?

Hey, if it's a 'thing' far be it from me to stop progress, but I do wonder if it has any outside relevance. Like if I hashtag a hashtag, do the twits see that on their feed?

@I don't understand twister #wtf does this thing do?

[DanaC]

As far as I know the only way the hashtag wuold be seen by anybody not already in the cellar would be if they searched for that hashtag on google and the cellar post came up.

I use them in jest on the Cellar - because I know they aren't actually going out as tweets, but they have a kind of rhythm and feel to them that I like. They just give a comment a different feel.

#twittersuckshashtagthecellarinsteadrowr