Today me and a coworker looked at a number of definitions for the Turkish word "Fenomen," the title of my latest First Regrets song. The consensus is that the definition is actually "Phenomenon," not "Talent" as I had originally thought. Now I can see how obviously they link up I feel I should have guessed the meaning from the beginning, though I know from Spanish to avoid false cognates (Embarazada does NOT mean "Embarrassed!" Also, in Turkish "Pasta" means "Cake," so I've been afraid of going to Italian restaurants and ordering the wrong thing.). Still, I put "Talent" into the lyrics, and now it just sounds kind of dumb. Whoops!
While "Fenomen" has a fairly straightforward translation because of the similar origin to the English word, most words are not so easy to find other language equivalents. This is how I've always felt language learning goes, in three stages: 1) Translation. Tatlı = sweet, both in the noun and verb form. 2) Finding the differences between the usages of that word. Tatlı can also be used to describe something little and cute, like a puppy. Also not a great thing to say to a girl (tatlısın) because it has deeply romantic connotation. 3) Automatic association. Tatlı doesn't mean sweet - it means tatlı.
I'm going to have some dessert now. Cheers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Comments