Saturday, January 26, 2008

language question

According to Marjane Satrapi, as interviewed in the Globe today, the French language has no actual word for "fun." Can that be right?

I mean, it sort of fits. They drink and smoke a lot and they have good food, but do they really look like they're having all that much fun when they're indulging those appetites? Plus, they make all these sex movies in which the people just talk and talk and talk and analyze and never do it. Or, if they do do it, they still never shut up. I dunno. They just seem kinda tense in general.

I bet the Italians have a word for fun.

xoxo

1 comment:

Craig H said...

The Germans have no word for "guidelines". (They're RULES, ja!)

I think you can learn a lot about people from words they don't have. Sometimes, it's because an individual never bothered to acquire many, and I don't think that's any particular national phenomenon. But when you're told that Eskimos have a dictionary full of things useful for describing what we can only generalize and mumble as "snow", you understand there's something to it.

Beer. Ale. Lager. Porter. Stout. Bock. Double Bock. Pilsner/Pils. Weizen/Hefeweizen, Helle or Dunkle. Bitter. Amber. Brown. IPA. Cask Conditioned. Biere de garde. Malt liquor. Chop. And, if you can't get it in a hogshead, at least ask next for a firken before you settle for something that's less than a party.

I think you get the picture.