Can you think of a word or a thing that you know the name of in a second language, but don’t know in your native language? And I don’t mean grammatical constructs, past tenses and stuff like that. I mean nouns, names of objects, verbs, etc.
My examples (Czech native, English is my second language):
- Some tools, since I watch a lot of makers: auger, router, mill (as in a milling machine)
- A lot of math/physics/programming terms: algebraic constructs (groups and the whole hierarchy), sub-atomic particles and terms from quantum theory… So many original english terms in IT are generally used “as-is” that I don’t even know if some of them have a czech equivalent. I know some do, but I’d never use them in a conversation.
- Some exotic animals, but I can’t think of any right now…
I know I could easily find the translations. However, I don’t usually get into a context where such words would appear in other language than English. And it feels like I’ve mastered the language when there’s a thing I fully understand the meaning of, while only learning abou it in English without the need to translate.
You don’t have to go very far in German before you find words that simply don’t exist in English.
ausgeshildert – to have been marked well with signposts.
Ex in English: Don’t worry about the guests getting lost. The subway to here is ausgeshildert.
Yes for IT related stuff. It’s a bit of a meme here, when an external speaker is called to give a presentation in a university you can tell they visibly struggle to keep the presentation in the native language because they’re so used to doing it in English. Some professors just give up and insert entire English sentences while teaching.
A while back I was trying to figure out what you call a place where butterflies are kept, in the way you’d keep fish in an aquarium, bees in an apiary, birds in an aviary, that sort of thing. I’d spent maybe half an hour going through different permutations of “lepidoptery” to little success; native Spanish speaker thought about it for ten seconds and pulled “mariposario” off the top of his head. I’ve only just now, in revisting the topic, discovered that it’s spelled “lepidopterarium” in English, which is - to put it bluntly - borderline unpronounceable.
Happens all the time.
Most of the time, it’s not that I don’t know or have forgotten the native word, it’s more like the English equivalent is more “readily available” in my brain, if that makes sense.
For hobbies and tech however, there are a lot of words I don’t know in my native language as I mostly read and watch English documentation.
Happens all the time. I speak three languages and just the other day I couldn’t remember my own language’s word for “Bolzenschneider”.
Still not sure how to translate that. I just called it the big snippy thing.
Native English speaker, second language Norwegian. Going back to visit friends and family is a mindfuck. I get brainfarts mid conversation where I only come up with the Norwegian word and not English. I have to pause mid conversation and look like a dumbass grasping for words.
Hobbies I learned here in Norway for sure. Also words referring specifically to grammar I mostly only know in Norwegian. Was never taught grammar in school growing up in my native tongue which would have otherwise helped a whole lot learning a new language. European birds I mostly only know the names of in Norwegian.
I feel like I have enough room for one and a half languages haha. Swedish and Danish are also competing for space. With how often I visit Sweden I have started to confuse the genders of nouns in Norwegian even more than I usually do.
ESL and learning Norwegian, and the impression I get is that the two languages are at the same time close and far enough that I could easily mix the two if I had to switch them on the go.
Reminds me of Portuguese and Spanish, which I have to make a physical effort to switch between the two, and still according to a friend, I sound Valencian when trying to speak Spanish. "<.<
I learned about a few topics later in life while already living abroad. A lot of my vocabulary for tools and gardening is Portuguese only. I think it’s funny that the same happens in countries: if the people of a place learn about some topic from some invading force the foreign language vocabulary gets adopted. Which is why a lot of Portuguese irrigation technology uses Arab words.
Not exactly what you asked for, but native English and fluent Dutch speaker (as a second language here). I think this is common, but I sometimes struggle to find the English word for something I know in Dutch, usually proper nouns.
Only words for local animals and plants. I might know other words that i don’t know in english but none i can think of off the top of my head.
I know a few words in Japanese and German that just don’t have an equivalent word in English. Like schadenfreude.
Schadenfreude. Amazing word, don’t need an english version.
