Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Sept 29, 2007 18:48:17 GMT -4
You're confusing concepts with individual words, Bill. "saldade" may not have a one-word English equivelant, but that does not mean that it's impossible to describe what "saldade" means in English. I would be interested in this and why you think this way. Well, if you look in Portugese/English dictionaries, I strongly suspect you will see a definition for "Saldade" . Nope.
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Post by Bill Thompson on Oct 2, 2007 17:26:47 GMT -4
...So I'm tending to lean towards culture rather than language as a bigger influence on misinterpretation. I agree that It is a cultural thing. If Americans all learned Portuguese I think they still wouldn't get the cultural significance. Proof of this I think is in the fact that my in-laws tell me that people can die of "saldade". I never heard of such a death in the USA regardless of how the word is translated. This death by "saldade" seems like proof to me that it just does not exist in our culture.
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Jason
Pluto
May all your hits be crits
Posts: 5,579
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Post by Jason on Oct 2, 2007 17:28:45 GMT -4
I happen to think that learning another language also involves learning their culture. You aren't fluent in a foreign language without also knowing idiom, and knowledge of idiom involves knowing some aspects of the culture connected with the language.
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Post by macapple on Oct 2, 2007 17:49:25 GMT -4
The reality of any situation and action is that it is entirely Neutral until an individual applies his own morals and prejudice.
this is a very general view of two types of psyche
1. People who believe everything they hear and build a moral and prejudice based on others beliefs. Never give themselves a "check up from the neck up" to test existing positions and look for new hypothesis. Typically only open to debate with people who "see it their way" and build an insular view based on self supportive facts.
A good example of this is sport team fans, who continue in the face of all rational discussion to defend their team/ player when incorrect.
My 84 year old Mother is another good example of someone set in their ways. It is the same problem as they loose the will or ability to question or adapt their own morals and prejudice. To say the younger generation are not like that is to approach this from naive and entirely closed point of view. "theres no way i'm like that!!"
2. People who will question the situation/ action from all available sides and continue to reevaluate their morals and prejudice through questioning, academic and scientific methods. Typically open to debate if backed up by sound facts and scientific/ academic rational. Otherwise will see most debate as speculative. No leaps of faith.
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Post by Bill Thompson on Oct 2, 2007 18:44:02 GMT -4
I just thought of another good word: "Shogun". In fact, there is no English word or concept for Shogun. The only thing the English could do was to just adapt the word itself and stick it into the English vocabulary.
I know this because when Europeans came to Japan they first thought that the Shogun was the Emperor. But there already was an Emperor. So they decided that they call the Emperor "The Pope of Japan". But this was incorrect. They tried to fit Japanese culture into European concepts and failed.
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Post by Ginnie on Oct 2, 2007 18:45:26 GMT -4
Bill, what is the definition of 'Shogun'?
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