Smiles
Spanish
French
German/Russian
St. Louis
Are All Men Equal?
World War II

Smiles
07/08/04

A “smile” is a facial expression characterized by an upward curving of the corners of the mouth, usually indicating pleasure or amusement; but smiles may also be misleading. It is necessary to know how to interpret a smile. Many years ago, my wife and I had an interesting experience after attending our first wedding ceremony in Japan. Following the ceremony, those who attended gathered together to have a picture taken with the bride and groom and their parents. Of course, when the picture was taken, we were looking at the photographer and his camera so we could not see the faces of the others, but we were very surprised when we saw the photograph. In it, my wife and I were not only the only foreigners in the picture; we were also the only ones smiling at that happy time. All the others looked very serious, which we later understood to be the proper expression for such an occasion. Many years later, our daughter, who was born and raised in Japan, returned to the land of her birth to teach at a Japanese university. When she went to get a Japanese Drivers License, she presented the required documents including her passport, American Drivers License, Alien Registration Certificate and a recent snapshot. She was informed that her snapshot was not acceptable because she was smiling and a smiling face was not appropriate for the permanent file into which it was to be entered. She had to go back to a nearby shop to have another non-smiling snapshot taken in order to obtain her license. Even when a foreign language is not understood, a smile may be a means of communication and in the Old Testament book of Proverbs, chapter 15, verse 13, it is written: “A merry heart makes a cheerful face.” (1080)

Spanish
07/08/08

Many American English words have been derived from Spanish. Not only were there a number of early explorers from Spain whose influence on American life and language continues today, many immigrants from Mexico who now live in this country reside in communities where Spanish is the preferred language. In some areas, it is the only language people understand. American English has borrowed more words from Spanish than from any other language, including such common words as adobe, alfalfa, alligator, breeze, buffalo, cafeteria, mosquito and tornado. The names of six states, of over 2,000 cities and towns plus countless names of rivers, mountains, valleys, etc., come from Spanish. “Mosquito,” the diminutive of “mosca,” the Spanish word for “fly,” signifies “a small fly.” It was first recorded in this land in the writings of William Bradford, governor of the Plymouth Colony, in 1656. Mosquitoes plagued early Americans all along the Atlantic Coast. They are usually very bothersome in the state of Florida at this time of year, but so far this year, they have not bothered us. In a number of large trees in this retirement community, we see the gray, threadlike stems of “Spanish moss” drooping in long clusters, but we have not seen any of the bright green blister beetles known as “Spanish flies.” This reminds me of the following limerick, which I recently read and which also exemplifies the complexity of the English language.

A flea and a fly in a flue
Were caught, so what could they do?
Said the fly, “Let us flee.”
“Let us fly,” said the flea.
So they flew through a flaw in the flue. (1081)

French
07/08/13

In the previous message, the influence of Spanish upon American English was noted, but other languages and cultures have also been very influential. This message is focused on French and the influence of French words and customs on English words and expressions. Certain words (including “depot” and “detente”) are clearly recognized as having French origin and a French-like pronunciation. Others (including “curtain,” “pantry” and “music”) are not so obvious, but it is in the dining room or restaurant that we find a number of items that include the word “French.” There, we may enjoy French-fried potatoes, French toast and French dressing. “French toast” is “sliced bread soaked in a milk and egg batter and lightly fried.” “French dressing” is “a seasoned oil and vinegar salad dressing.” But the term “French-fried potatoes” is not related to a country, but to a method of preparing meat and vegetables before cooking them. As a verb, “French” means “to cut into strips before cooking.” A lamb chop is “Frenched,” for example, when it is cut close to the bone so that the narrow strip of bone may be more easily handled. Some vegetables, such as string beans, are “Frenched” (cut into narrow strips) before cooking. So it was from the procedure followed in preparing these potato strips that the name was given. Moving from the restaurant to the concert hall, we find that a “French horn” is “a valved brass wind instrument with a circular shape, tapering from a narrow mouthpiece to a flaring bell at the other end and producing a mellow tone.” Every culture has its characteristic food and musical instruments which should be recognized and appreciated by others as well. (1082)

German/Russian
07/08/17

In previous “Timely Words” messages, attention has been called to English words beginning with the names of various European countries and their languages, including “French,” “Spanish,” “Dutch,” “Scotch” and “Irish.” Today's message is related to terms beginning with “German” and “Russian.” A “German shepherd” is a large dog of a breed developed in Germany, having a brownish or black coat, and often trained to assist the police and the blind. “Measles” is a contagious virus disease which produces red spots. The Japanese word for this illness is “hashika.” In the middle of the 19th century, it is thought that German immigrants brought a disease, also called “rubella,” with them to the U.S.A. As a result, this illness is called “German measles” in American English (“fuushin” in Japanese). “Russian dressing” is a salad dressing, as mayonnaise, having chili sauce, chopped pickles and pimientos, and “Russian thistle” is a red-stemmed, prickly plant. But “Russian roulette” is a fearful adventure in a very different setting. “Roulette” is a gambling game in which the players bet on which slot of a rotating disk a small ball will come to rest in. It is because of a certain similarity to that gambling game that the following dangerous stunt is called a “roulette,” but it is not certain why it is called “Russian roulette.” In this “roulette,” a person, usually in response to a dare, inserts one bullet into a 6-cylinder revolver, spins the cylinder, places the muzzle against his head and fires. As a result, either that person is killed or is very thankful that the bullet was not in the part of the cylinder that was fired. (1083)

St. Louis
07/08/21

In my hometown, there were two unrelated families which had the same surname: Robinson. In both families, there were boys my age, whose names were pronounced the same but were spelled differently. One was spelled L-e-w-i-s and the other was spelled L-o-u-i-s. This often caused confusion, both in classrooms and elsewhere. One of the well-known cities in the central area of the United States of America is St. Louis in the state of Missouri. Louis was the name of many French kings and although, in French, the name is pronounced without the “s” sound, I do not recall hearing the name of that city in Missouri pronounced that way. That city, founded in 1764 by a couple of Frenchmen, was named after King Louis XV and his patron saint Louis IX. Louis IX, one of France’s greatest and best-loved monarchs, inherited the throne in 1214 when he was only 12 years old. His mother was made regent and ruled until he became 20. “Renowned for his justice and charity, Louis came to be regarded as an ideal king. He respected the rights of his subjects, whether peasants or nobles. He fed beggars from his table, washed their feet and ministered to lepers.” During his reign, “France enjoyed unprecedented peace and prosperity.” He was also involved in the Crusades, which sought to recover the Holy Land from Muslim control. Leading both the Seventh and Eighth Crusades, it was his death, resulting from the plague in 1270, that caused the end of the Eighth Crusade. Twenty-seven years later, when he was proclaimed a saint by Pope Benedict VIII, August 25th, the day of his death, was set as his feast day. (1084)

Are All Men Equal?
07/08/26

As a result of my living in Japan for most of my life, during which I was often involved in translation problems, both from English to Japanese and from Japanese to English, I have come to the conclusion that it is impossible to make a perfect translation from one language to another. The meanings and implications of words are different, depending on culture, tradition, time and context. In fact, it is not unusual for the exact meaning of certain words to be questionable even within the same culture. It is for this reason that lawyers are needed to clarify the exact meaning of terms in legal documents. Even the basis of the famous Declaration of Independence of the United States of America may be questionable, for it states that one of the “self-evident” truths on which the Declaration is based is that “all men are created equal.” In this phrase, what is the meaning of “men”? According to my dictionary, the first two definitions of “man” are: “1. An adult male human being. 2. A human being, regardless of sex or age.” Although I prefer to consider the original meaning of “all men” to be “all human beings,” it was not until after the Civil War, over one hundred years later, that the rights of all citizens, regardless of race or color, were officially recognized in the 15th Amendment to the Constitution. And it took another fifty years for the 19th Amendment, which recognized the rights of women, to be ratified, on August 18, 1920. An objective appraisal of present American society will recognize that prejudice still is manifested toward people of “color” and women. To gain a correct interpretation of Bible passages also, the time and place in which they were written must be considered. (1085)

World War II
07/08/30

On June 28, 1914, Serbian nationalists assassinated an Austro-Hungarian archduke and his wife in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia-Herzegovina. This incident became the provocation of the First World War, which continued for five years and eventually involved 28 nations on five continents. The Second World War began in Europe when Nazi Germany invaded Poland on September 1, 1939. Unfortunately, the League of Nations, which was established following the end of the First World War, was not effective in its attempts to eliminate such aggressive acts. Two years later, Japan’s bombing of Pearl Harbor, on December 7, 1941, pushed the United States of America into the war. Germany and its military ally, Italy, had forcefully gained control of a number of nations in Europe and Africa. Germany sought to exterminate all the Jews in the territories under its control. The European part of this war ended with Germany’s official surrender on May 7, 1945, but it was following the dropping of the atomic bomb on the Japanese City of Hiroshima on August 5 of that year, that Japan surrendered. The war that began on September 1, 1939, officially came to an end exactly six years later with the signing of surrender documents by Japanese representatives on an American battleship in Tokyo Bay on September 2, 1945. Included in Jesus’ description of events that will be a “sign” of his return and “the end of the age” related in the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, are: wars, rumors of wars, nations rising against nations, famines and earthquakes. According to some interpretations, these predictions are now being fulfilled, so the end is near, but actually, they may be applied to many eras of world history. (1086)