When a Language Gap Confuses and Amuses Us
Potato, pototo, tomato, tomoto
Note to readers: After you read, I’d love to hear what slang you use so that I can continue to become more knowledgeable. Please help :)
Early in my career, I was in Japan and traveled with a translator. Ohashi had spent his whole life in Japan, and as an interpreter, he understood the nuances of language and the values embedded in different cultures.
He described a particular moment, which I found both funny and instructive. He was at a state dinner where Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone was hosting Jimmy Carter. Ohashi was one of the multiple translators used for the dignitaries on this evening.
When it was Jimmy Carter’s turn to speak, Carter addressed the prominent attendees and said roughly the following to Nakasone:
“Like you, I had humble beginnings. I was a peanut farmer who rose over time.”
Nakasone’s translator had to quickly figure out what to do with what Carter thought would be a symbiotic bond. This translator knew that the audience would experience Carter’s words differently. The Horatio Alger “rags to riches” story would not play well in Japan.
So, instead, the translator saved the day by explaining Carter’s words as follows:
“Like you, I was once a feudal lord over many acres of farmland.”
Ohashi relayed that the translators that night commented to each other on the skill and smarts of the translator, who thought quickly on his feet and transformed the sentence into something that worked for Japanese culture.
Almost four decades later, I still love that story as a reminder that we should not assume our values, conveyed through language, to work for everyone.
This thought helps me when I am confounded by some of what I hear in our more modern vernacular, as shared below.
I knew I was lost: “word”
There are so many instances when millennials and Gen-Z confuse me. While we all seem to be speaking English, the variances in meaning and word choice can be quite large and often comical.
Early signs of confusion began when I started hearing “Word.” I grew up with “word” being used as a sign of faith and sincerity.
“Give me your word.”
Today, it is used quite differently. As best as I can tell, “word” equates to “I agree with you.”
Ate: really?
The most recent source of confusion was when I overheard someone say, “She really ate that.” Maybe I am too literal, but I was wondering, “Did she eat it or not? What’s ‘really’ doing in the sentence?”
Then I learned that the meaning of “ate” is to do a great job — to excel at the feat. What would I say to communicate outstanding performance?
“She hit it out of the park!”
All those who are fifty-plus would have understood me, but only a small minority would have understood “ate” as not about food at all.
Seasoning our language with salt
The modern-day slang word that I understand but would never use is “salty.” I still think of “salty” as having too much sodium chloride in one’s food. Now I know that salty not only describes a seasoning but a mood.
To be salty means to be upset. Who knew?
I’m kind of salty — I mean upset — that I didn’t know this interpretation and have been constricting my use of a word that could add so much flavor to my stories.
Being “sus” of the language around me
What do we say when we engage with someone we can’t trust? I might say they seem untrustworthy, or if I’m being fancy, “disingenuous.” For a more complete expression, I might say, “There’s more there than meets the eye.”
But if I am a Gen-Z living in 2024, I might say, “He’s acting pretty sus.” I believe “sus” is shorthand for “suspicious,” and since we are always in a rush and looking for new efficiencies, even in our language use, “sus” does it. It’s only one syllable. My alternatives were lengthier. “Disingenuous” is five syllables!
Am I being sus in even reporting on language use when I am a Luddite who harkens back to another time?
Betting I’m wrong or right
Maybe the current use of a word that confuses me most is “bet.” I have always used “bet,” as in to place a wager. I grew up saying to my three brothers,
“I bet you the Denver Broncos are going to win this week.”
Then, I’d hear back almost in unison, “I bet you’re wrong.”
Today, though, “bet” is almost diametrically opposed to the way I understand the word. “Bet” now means agree or okay.
“Want to go to the park and throw a ball?”
If I hear back, “bet,” it means yes.
I bet I will never bet to this usage.
No cappin, no sh*t, I’m telling the truth
When the writer in me hears the words “no cap,” I think, " Okay, I won’t capitalize that.”
Wrong again! “Cap” is synonymous with “lie,” so “no cap” is another way of saying “for real” or “it’s true.”
And what if you are, in fact, lying? Someone might notice and say, “He is capping you.”
No cappin’, I’m serious.
Joke time
What are we to make of the way language can mean something very different depending on where you live and your age?
I believe that being curious and finding humor will help you bridge the gap. I also assume a perpetual state of confusion.
The best way to end our confusion, and this piece, is through a good joke. It goes:
The past, the present, and the future walk into a bar.
It was tense.
Peanut farmers, feudal lords, Luddites, hipsters…everyone in our diverse world:
We all ate it!
LOL! Very good.I could not even begin to converse with that generation. One story along those lines is this. Nikita Krushchev was known to bombastically declare that his country would bury different countries and organizations. One of my college professors said that when Krushchev said that he would bury the US in the space race, it should have been translated, " we will leave you in the dust." So many things have lost their original meaning,. Raining cats and dogs, sleep tight, bee in your bonnet. Language is lovely. I love words!
"As best as I can tell, “word” equates to “I agree with you.”" Which is likely the context in which it is used in Cameo's massive mid-80s hit "Word Up!"
Most professions and avocations have particular forms of shorthand jargon that are not easily explainable to outsiders that I find helpful to know looking at their histories. An animator knows what a "gag" is, science fiction fans know what "filk" is and vaudevillians were well-acquainted with the term "next to closing", but people not part of those groups have to be told what they mean. That is part of the historian's jobs.
One of the most revealing books I have read is H.L. Mencken's "The American Language", where he explored the numerous forms and subclasses of English as spoken in the U.S. Who knew that two people in the country could speak the language in entirely different ways dependent on where they grew up and lived?