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Thursday, 10. January 2008
What makes it interesting?
carschti, 14:30h
What makes a language interesting?
A language is only interesting if you already speak another language. I thought this morning about the solution of problems and came to the conclusion that whenever something is interesting for me there has to be a problem with it before. As a problem I define everything which has a deviation from the expected.
This may sound confusing but is very simple. Information is only transmitted when there´s a deviation from the normal state. The same about interesting things.
An example: The city I´m living in is my daily life. Nothing special for me, as most of the things which are special I do not consider as special anymore. When somebody else would visit this place they may find something which is unusual for them.It has a deviation from the things they know. So it´s interesting for them.
The problem, or deviation, makes something interesting. But if there´s nothing you can compare it to, there will be no deviation, no problem, no point of interest.
I consider the english and the german language as interesting since both have their roots in the same region but the are very different. Today I found another word which exist in german but there´s no equivalent in english, while the japanese language knows it.
"Blässe" (noun), which basically means someone has a pale face. The adjective exists in both languages, but the noun does only exist in german (and japanese). Another word: " Schadenfreude", having a laugh about the problems of another person.
All right. That´s a deviation which makes the languages interesting.
Why do I have these thoughts. I don´t know.
Remember the last indoor cycling or running event you saw on TV? It seems like whenever rounds are counted the sport is practised counterclockwise. Why is this??
A language is only interesting if you already speak another language. I thought this morning about the solution of problems and came to the conclusion that whenever something is interesting for me there has to be a problem with it before. As a problem I define everything which has a deviation from the expected.
This may sound confusing but is very simple. Information is only transmitted when there´s a deviation from the normal state. The same about interesting things.
An example: The city I´m living in is my daily life. Nothing special for me, as most of the things which are special I do not consider as special anymore. When somebody else would visit this place they may find something which is unusual for them.It has a deviation from the things they know. So it´s interesting for them.
The problem, or deviation, makes something interesting. But if there´s nothing you can compare it to, there will be no deviation, no problem, no point of interest.
I consider the english and the german language as interesting since both have their roots in the same region but the are very different. Today I found another word which exist in german but there´s no equivalent in english, while the japanese language knows it.
"Blässe" (noun), which basically means someone has a pale face. The adjective exists in both languages, but the noun does only exist in german (and japanese). Another word: " Schadenfreude", having a laugh about the problems of another person.
All right. That´s a deviation which makes the languages interesting.
Why do I have these thoughts. I don´t know.
Remember the last indoor cycling or running event you saw on TV? It seems like whenever rounds are counted the sport is practised counterclockwise. Why is this??
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