How the Right Words Help Us to Feel the Right Things

Our feelings are often waiting for the right words to help us to experience them properly.

FURTHER READING

“You’re in a part of town you used to live in as a teenager. You walk past the house of the girlfriend you knew when you were sixteen. You look up to what used to be her bedroom window. From the outside, everything still looks the same, though somebody else lives there now. Her parents are retired, she’s married with two small kids in another city. You feel a searing nostalgia for everything that was and no longer is. It’s not so much her you miss, more what you had, who you both were, how things looked then. It’s hard to explain what the feeling is, though it is confounding in its intensity. At that moment, your phone rings. It’s a friend – who asks how you are. You’re at a loss, you don’t quite know how to convey your emotions and after a few attempts, move on to other subjects…”

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[heydebee]

Aw, I'm from Brazil and felt so privileged now. Also, he said "saudade" in a funny way <3

[dilara]

The language we speak does not just express our emotions, it shapes it too. You say "hüzün" in Turkish to express that you are sad about something but there is nothing you can do about it because it is long gone. You feel this sadness like a wave or a soft blow. Great way to describe my feeling for my beautiful but possesed country.
Love and peace from Turkey!

[SmianiexD]

A German word that I miss the most in other languages is 'Geborgenheit'. It's the release, calmness and peace that you feel when you're held by a loved person, it means being safe, sheltered, warmed, deeply loved, seen and understood at the same time, a feeling of oneness and home, in which no time exists. A child can feel 'geborgen' looking into his or her mother's eyes, or you might feel 'geborgen' in your partner's arms. How can people in other countries live without the name for that feeling - there's no more intimacy then saying to somebody: 'I feel so 'geborgen' with you'.

[bolivar]

1. Here is a little list that may help:

I have a Japanese friend here in Germany, who suffered a lot from love pain recently. He told me something I never thought about: he said that he was telling the story of his separation to a friend in Japanese and after a while, they both ended up making fun of all the details and laughing! He felt so "lightened up" afterwards. The next day he told the same story to another friend in German and he couldn't stop crying!

I understand...German is an incredibly powerful language. Pain sounds like pain and fear sound like fear! May be that's why psychologists all over the world use the German term "Angst", while describing fear. Because it has the right " weight an depth".

German can be extremely helpful if you are willing to look into the very depths of your soul, but of course we don't want to BE there all the time!!

There was a time where I was having nightmares every night and it occurred to me that may be I needed to see a shrink. Well but then I thought " there is no way I am gonna talk to a shrink about my mother in German for God's sake!! That would give me and the poor shrink even more nightmares.

( German friends, please don't feel offended. I love your wonderful language! It is just that because it is so precise, it leaves you no escape! I mean how can you say
" Ausweglosigkeit des Daseins" in another language that will really make it sound like what it is ?? )

2. Philosopher Karl Popper says that our language is like a prison. But it is an " odd prison" because we are unaware of being imprisoned. And he adds this:

"If we try hard enough we can transcend our prison by studying the new language and by comparing it with our own. Admittedly the result will be a new prison. And again, we will not suffer from it. Or rather, whenever we do suffer from it, we are free to examine it critically and thus to break out again into a still wider prison. "

( From the book " The Myth of the Framework" )

So indeed it is a good idea to learn a couple of languages. I highly recommend everyone the website Duolingo. It is really a lot of fun!

3. But we could also say that:

" We are a slightly different person in every language we speak".

I heard this idea on a wonderful " On Being with Krista Tippett" podcast called " Unfolding Language, Unfolding Life", with the linguist Jean Berko Gleason.


4. You can also listen to Stephen Fry's very interesting thoughts on language if you search for this podcast:

" Stephen Fry, Series 2, Episode 3, Language"

Talking about whether the language is the father of thought or not, he gives us this great question as an example:

" How can I tell you what I think, until I've heard what I am going to say"?


5. One thing I like a lot about the word " saudade" is that as Fernando Pessoa says, you can also feel saudade of things that never existed....

" Nao há saudades mais dolorosas
do que as das coisas
que nunca foram"

( The most painful saudades
are those of the things
that were never there.)


6. Wittgenstein says " All I know is what I have words for".

But we must also be at peace with the idea that there will be so much we won't be able to say..

And that's what the music is for!

7. So here are three songs I would recommend:
Άκης Πάνου - Θέλω Να Τα Πω ( I want to tell, Akis Pano )
They call the wind Mariah ( Sam Cooke)
Le tengo rabia al silencio ( Atahualpa Yupanqui

[namebrandmason]

I'm an American, but one of my favorite words is the German "Weltschmerz." It refers to the unhappiness caused by how you perceive the world in comparison to how you feel it should be.

[HoriaIoan]

We need a universal language for feelings please!

[MariusCristianCapatina]

"saudade", Romanian language has a similar word, DOR:
1. a strong desire to see or revisit something or someone dear to return to a favorite occupation; nostalgia.
 2. condition of mind of those who aspire to something; longing, desire.
 3. the suffering caused by love for someone (who is away).

[samimas]

In Arabic, the word وجد (wajd) means a state of transparent sadness caused by the memory of a loved one who is not near; it is widely used in ancient Arabic poetry to describe the state of the lover’s heart as he or she remembers the long-gone love. It is a mixed emotion of sadness for the loss, and happiness for having loved that person.

[holestdrillpresschannel]

Even without sound this video is pure art.

[araceliabitia]

In México we have "apapachar" it comes from nahuatl and it means hug with the soul :)

[tracesprite]

This is a beautiful idea. Another way of identifying your feelings is if you are lucky enough to have a friend who respects and values what you feel, then that friend will help you to crystallize your emotions by being receptive to what you're saying.

[piff]

wow. I experienced this yesterday when a friend of mine described how she was feeling in a family moment. It was a simple, existent word in our language: "plenitude". After hearing that and connecting the word's meaning to the moments in my life and to my own feelings, I even felt that plenitude.

Words are powerful. We underestimate them.

[MrHrhrhrh]

I think a language's vocabulary do shape how we are in terms of behavior and feelings.

[beth_]

As a Brazilian I must say that was an Excellent way to describe SAUDADE!!! 👍

[henrikts]

'Forelsket' is actually an adjective, so it's not quite right to say "I was overpowered by 'forelsket'". It's rather a state that you find yourself in, so you'd say for example "I think i am 'forelsket'" (Jeg tror jeg er forelsket). So exciting that TSOF spoke about a norwegian word <3 Wonderful video!

[edithalexis]

I'm from Angola and we speak portuguese too... "Saudade" is a great word to describe past emotions and feelings about something or someone. it's good nostalgia! I love it.

[smallweirdo]

Your videos are heart-warming, a sweet comfort in the dullness of the the every day routine; every time I watch one, life seems to obtain a little more meaning.
Please, keep uploading such great content.

[larissagandolfo]

i'm brazilian and i'm soooo happy with this video! saudade it's our most beatiful word :) tks !

[Taaaah]

reminds me so much of the dictionary of obscure sorrows.
also, saudade is just the most beautiful, bittersweet word.

[franfleck]

Literature, painting, art at all. Such a beautiful language to express what is "unwordable"!