Reblogging: 11 Beautifully Untranslatable Words from Other Cultures

Reblogging: from Matador Network

THE RELATIONSHIP between words and their meaning is a fascinating one, and linguists have spent countless years deconstructing it, taking it apart letter by letter, and trying to figure out why there are so many feelings and ideas that we cannot even put words to, and that our languages cannot identify.
The idea that words cannot always say everything has been written about extensively — as Friedrich Nietzsche said.

Words are but symbols for the relations of things to one another and to us; nowhere do they touch upon the absolute truth.

German: Waldeinsamkeit

A feeling of solitude, being alone in the woods, and a connected-ness to nature. Ralph Waldo Emerson even wrote a whole poem about it.

Italian: Culaccino

The mark left on a table by a cold glass. Who knew condensation could sound so poetic.

Inuit: Iktsuarpok

The feeling of anticipation that leads you to go outside and check if anyone is coming, and probably also indicates an element of impatience.

Japanese: Komorebi

This is the word the Japanese have for when sunlight filters through the trees — the interplay between the light and the leaves.

Russian: Pochemuchka

Someone who asks a lot of questions. In fact, probably too many questions. We all know a few of these.

Spanish: Sobremesa

Spaniards tend to be a sociable bunch, and this word describes the period of time after a meal when you have food-induced conversations with the people you have shared the meal with.

Indonesian: Jayus

Their slang for someone who tells a joke so badly, that is so unfunny, you cannot help but laugh out loud.

Hawaiian: Pana Poʻo

You know when you forget where you’ve put the keys, and you scratch your head because it somehow seems to help your remember? This is the word for it.

French: Dépaysement

The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country — of being a foreigner, or an immigrant, of being somewhat displaced from your origin.

Urdu: Goya

Urdu is the national language of Pakistan, but is also an official language in five of the Indian states. This particular Urdu word conveys a contemplative ‘as-if’ that nonetheless feels like reality, and describes the suspension of disbelief that can occur, often through good storytelling.

Swedish: Mångata

The word for the glimmering, roadlike reflection that the moon creates on water.

Spain, Philippines Sign Agreement on Spanish Language

The most awaited desire in my life has almost come, and hoping that it'll materialized soon so as the Senate would agree as a whole.
Why learning Spanish? well, that's the language of my ancestors. I took up Spanish class in College as prerequisite but the sad thing was I didn't learn that much. The professor who just passed away wasn't a perfect for it.
If you speak Spanish, you can communicate with almost 500 million people worldwide! Think how many more employment options this gives you! And if you want to take a trip to Spain or Latin America, a little knowledge of Spanish will go a long way.
Learning Spanish would enable me to learn more about the culture of my ancestors which it connects the Spanish regime and ruling here in the Philippines back the old times. On the other hand, it'll expand my universe so as it'll help me when traveling to the Spanish countries.




MADRID—Spain will help the Philippines reintroduce Spanish language instruction at public schools in the southeastern Asian country under an agreement signed Tuesday between the two nations.

The study of the language is currently voluntary at public high schools in the Philippines, a former Spanish colony, but the government plans to make its availability widespread from 2012.

Under the agreement signed Tuesday, Madrid will help train Spanish language teachers in the Philippines, help develop the curriculum and provide electronic teaching aids as well as technical advice, the Spanish foreign ministry said.

It was signed by the Philippines' Education Secretary Jesli Lapus and the Spanish education ministry's director for international relations, Jose Manuel Martinez Sierra in Barcelona, it added in a statement.

In 1987 the Philippines abolished Spanish as one of its official languages as well as a requirement that college students had to learn it.

The language, one of the world's most spoken, has since largely vanished from everyday use in the country of just under 100 million people, with English and the local languages now commonly used.

Unlike in Madrid's colonies in Latin America, the Spanish language was never as widespread in the Philippines, mainly because of the small number of Spanish settlers in the archipelago.

English was introduced to the country when it passed from Spanish to American control after the Spanish-American war of 1898.
(Source:http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/breakingnews/view/20100224-255038/Spain-Philippines-sign-agreement-on-Spanish-language)