Figurative Ship and Some Language Lesson

The prompt today is sail and considering that I don't have proper knowledge about ship and sailing, I will just write about figurative ship: household.

In Indonesian language there is term "bahtera rumah tangga". Bahtera means ship, rumah tangga means household. If you understand Indonesian language, you can read this article about the etymology of the phrase.

Usually people use the word "kapal" in Indonesian to talk about the watercraft. The word "bahtera" is rarely used in everyday conversation when you talk about water transportation. So why do we use the word "bahtera" when it comes to figurative ship called household?

The word "kapal" is derived from Tamil word "kappal". The word "bahtera" is derived from the word "bahitra" in old Javanese, which is a loanword from from Sanskirt word "vahitra". According to the article I link above, the word "bahtera" is used when talking about figurative ship because Sankirt is used as ritual language so it has more spiritual feeling.

So it is said that being a family and creating household is like being in the same ship. You have to work together so the ship can sail safely. I can't explain further about it because, like a fan whose ship isn't canon, my ship hasn't sailed yet.

Maybe I should enjoy the harbour while getting my ship ready. Then we'll sail (though I don't know yet whom this "we" refer to).

Talking about Fandom: Definition

Out of nowhere, I want to talk about fandom.

According to Wikipedia, fandom is a term used to refer to a subculture composed of fans characterized by a feeling of empathy and camaraderie with others who share a common interest. Note the keywords: fan, empathy, camaraderie, and common interest.

We all know what fan means. Oxford dictionary defines fan as a person who has a strong interest in or admiration for a particular person or thing. I myself am a fan of Harry Potter, My Chemical Romance, etc. More on this later.

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of another. It's different from sympathy. Sympathy means feeling of pity and sorrow for someone else's misfortune. However, I was a bit confused with the second definition of sympathy. It is said that sympathy means understanding between people; common feeling. I then remember a lecturer said, "With your patient, you have to show empathy but you aren't allowed to show sympathy. You should understand their feeling but you can't, for example, hug them or cry with them."

In fandom, we can still find different opinions but, with that definition from Wikipedia, a fan is supposed to understand the feeling of other fans.

Camaraderie means mutual trust and friendship among people who spend a lot of time together. I'm surprised. I myself understand that we can find friends in fandom but I'm not sure with mutual trust. Is it just me?

I feel the camaraderie with my close friends. However, in the topic of fandom, camaraderie is strong with Lady Slytherin. We both like Harry Potter and discuss about it almost everyday.

Common interest is common interest. I don't even need to explain it, do I? 

To be continued ...

Hiraeth and Needle

The prompt is "longing". It reminds me of two words: hiraeth and Needle.

According to Wikipedia, hiraeth is a Welsh word with no direct English translation. Oxford and Merriam Webster define hiraeth as: (noun) "a homesickness for a home you cannot return to, or that never was". It is a mix of longing, yearning, nostalgia, wistfulness, or an earnest desire for the Wales of the past. 

 

Pamela Petro explained hiraeth in the post Dreaming in Welsh. She wrote, "In 1282, Wales became the first colony of the English empire. Because England eventually ruled half the globe, we all know its first colony by the name the colonizers gave it: Wales, which means 'Place of the Others,' or 'Place of the Romanized Foreigners'." She continued, "To Welsh speakers, Wales is Cymru (pronounced Kum-ree): home of the Cymry, or fellow countrymen."

The Welsh feel hiraeth for the Wales of the past that they cannot return to. This reminds of a paragraph from "A Feast for Crows" by George. R. R. Martin, when Arya had to give up all her belongings. It meant that she also had to give up Needle, her sword.

Needle was Robb and Bran and Rickon, her mother and her father, even Sansa. Needle was Winterfell's grey walls, and the laughter of its people. Needle was the summer snows, Old Nan's stories, the heart tree with its red leaves and scary face, the warm earthy smell of the glass gardens, the sound of the north wind rattling the shutters of her room. Needle was Jon Snow's smile. He used to mess my hair and call me "little sister," she remembered, and suddenly there were tears in her eyes. 

The word hiraeth and that one paragraph can always give me emotion which I can't describe.

They make me smile. A sad smile.

Trauma & Traum

Next Monday on April 27th, I'm going to start studying traumatology. It's not about mental trauma anyway. It's about physical injury.
The word trauma sounds similar to the word Traum in German. They have different meaning, though. Traum means dream.
Can dream cause trauma? Maybe.

Record, Speak, Listen

I found a good video in Easy Russian channel, "How to improve your pronounciation". In that video, Maria showed how she improves her English speaking by recording her speech then listening to it.
I've ever done that with my English. I recorded myself speaking English then I listened to my voice and I found it terrible. It was fun anyway. I guess I will record myself speaking Russian after this.
You should try that, too. Record yourself speaking foreign language then listen. If it doesn't sound good, try again.

Du weiβt, was wunderschön ist – oder?

Du weiβt, was wunderschön ist – oder?

Lese das erste Wort noch mal.

Want to know the translation? Look at this page. Once I sent the translation to my friend and she was happy.

When I read that page, I laughed reading this

Jemand folgt dir auf Twitter => Juhu, ein neuer Follower!

Jemand folgt dir im richtigen Leben = Oh mein Gott, ein Stalker!

Translation:

Someone follows you on Twitter => Yoohoo, a new follower!

Someone follows you in real life => Oh my God, a stalker!

Words

One of my questions in Liebster Award is about favourite word and the answers are various. There are onomatopoeia, inspiration, mamma, and popliteal. I asked that question because I'm interested in language and here are some of my favourite words from some languages

1. Jawa
Garwa
Garwa iku bojo. Ing kerata basa, garwa iku sigaraning nyawa.
Garwa means wife or husband in Javanese. In kerata basa (I will explain about it in the future, hopefully), garwa is sigaraning nyawa (literally means a split of soul).

2. Indonesia
Sepeda
Karena saya lama gak naik sepeda.
Sepeda means bicycle. Because I haven't rid bicycle for a long time.

3. English
Fantasy
When you're bored, try to add a little more fantasy to your life.

4. Русский
Корову

Моя мама и я смотрим “Маша и Медвед” Следы НевиданныхЗверей. Маша гоборит “Корову” но моя мама слышит “Kerupuk”.

Корову

My mom and I watch "Masha and the Bear" Track of Unknown Animal. Masha says "Корову" (pronounced karovu, it means cow) but my mom hears "Kerupuk".

Kerupuk

5. Deutch

Blume

Das Wort “Blume” klingt schön und ich möchte Blume kaufen.

The word "Blume" (it means flower) sounds nice and I want to buy flower.

6. Chinese

I haven't learned Chinese again for a long time so I forget many words. My favourite words are 癌 and 爱. Both words are pronounced "ai" but with different tones. 癌 means cancer while 爱 means love. It's interesting that with different tone, a nice word which means love can be cancer. Learn more about tone in Chinese language here.

7. Arabic

كيف

كيف is pronounced "kaifa" and it means "how". I just like the way it sounds.

8. Hebrew

בית

בית is pronounced "bayet" (or bayit?) and it means home. If you know Arabic you will notice that it sounds similar to the word "bait" in Arabic which also means home.

9. Latin and Greek

There are many medical terms derived from Latin or Greek. For example, in sternum (breastbone), there are manubrium sterni and processus xiphoideus. Manubrium means handle in Latin while xiphoid means sword-like in Greek.

Sternum

If you know any of those languages and notice that I make mistake, please let me know.

My Blog Usernames

In Blogger, my name appears as Aku Menulis and in WordPress, it's lincahceria5. None of those is my real name.

"Aku Menulis" means I write. I have a folder in my laptop named "I Write". It contains my writing, of course. For my username, I chose the Indonesian words.

lincahceria is a merge of two words: "lincah" and "ceria". Lincah means agile, ceria means cheerful. My cousins once named his football team "Lincah Ceria". It sounds cute and not-footbally (is there such word?). I chose it as a name because, as usual, I lacked of idea and it was the first thing came to my mind.

Gething Nyanding

"Gething nyanding" is a Javanese idiom. Gething means hate and nyanding means approach or become close. It can be used as reminder that sometimes the thing or person that we hate may become the one that's close to us. So be careful with your hate.

Why English?

I'm an Indonesian. My ethnic group is Javanese. Everyday I speak Javanese and Indonesian but I mostly write my blog posts in English. Not because I want to look more "international" but because I'm just comfortable to write in English.

I speak Javanese a lot. Even when I speak Indonesian or English, people can still notice my Javanese accent. However, I rarely write article in Javanese. It's a matter of habit, I know. I'm not used to it so it's difficult.

I speak and write Indonesian. However, I mostly write Indonesian in academic work: practicum report, discussion report, etc. It makes me feel "awkward" when writing an informal Indonesian article. Really, I feel awkward.

I rarely use English in everyday conversation but I write e-mails in English for my penpals. My e-mail writing style is like my blog post writing style. When I write a post, I often imagine that I write e-mail and tell a story to my penpal. The difference is, my posts can be read by many people.