"Non-English speakers: what does your language do that blows English speakers' minds? (school project, pls help!)"
Hey r/linguistics (and anyone else who ended up here)! I'm a student working on a presentation about how wildly different languages can be from each other, and I need YOUR help. Specifically, I'm looking for cool, weird, or mind-bending things your language does that English just... doesn't. Drop your answers below — this will literally make my presentation 10x more interesting. I'll try to reply to everyone!
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**Q1 — Who are you?**
What's your native language and where did you grow up? (No need to be specific if you'd rather not!)
> e.g. "I speak Swahili, grew up in Kenya" or "Native Mandarin speaker from Taiwan"
**Q2 — Your language has WAY more words than English**
Is there something in your language that has like 10 different words for it, where English just has one? Tell me the words and what makes each one different!
> e.g. Scottish Gaelic has tons of words for different types of rain. Arabic has loads of words for different kinds of sand/desert. Japanese has like 20 words for different types of rain too!
**Q3 — Family words that English doesn't bother with**
Does your language have separate words for relatives that English just lumps together? Like, does it matter whether your uncle is your mom's brother or your dad's brother? Whether your sibling is older or younger?
> e.g. in Chinese, there are different words for literally every type of cousin depending on which side of the family and whether they're older or younger than you. English just says "cousin" and calls it a day lol
**Q4 — How polite do you have to be?**
Does your language make you speak completely differently depending on who you're talking to — like your boss vs. your best friend? Do you have a formal "you" and an informal "you"? Or even more levels than that?
> e.g. Korean has like 7 different levels of speech formality. Javanese basically has two whole separate vocabularies. French and Spanish have tu/vous and tu/usted. Meanwhile English just has... "you." For everyone.
**Q5 — Words that can't be translated (the good stuff)**
This is my favourite question: is there a word in your language that just has NO equivalent in English? A feeling, a vibe, a situation — something your culture has a perfect word for but English has to use a whole sentence to describe?
> e.g. Portuguese "saudade" = a deep nostalgic longing (untranslatable tbh). German "Schadenfreude" = enjoying someone else's misfortune (English actually borrowed this one lol). Danish "hygge" = cozy quality time with people you love.
**Q6 — Anything else that's wild?**
Is there anything else about your language that consistently surprises people or that you wish more people knew about? Drop it here — the weirder the better honestly.