Wednesday, May 29, 2013

PS: I love you!

I like to think that the reason for the adoption of English as a dominant global language lies not in its adaptability or the geographic reach of the British Empire, but in a phenomenally easy one: the utterly uncomplicated, and simple-syllable, way of saying "I love you."

That phrase explains it all.

Many of the Tamil and the Hindi movies that I watched when growing up in India, if they were not stories that were strictly rural in their settings, had "I love you" sometimes even more than once in the dialog.  After all, most movies dealt the affairs of the heart and they ran for nearly three hours.

My guess is that thanks to the movies, even quite a few among the population who didn't know how to read and write were familiar with "I love you" as an expression and its meaning.

If one of the characters had to say "I love you" in Tamil, for instance, it is way more than three syllables.  நான் உன்னை காதலிக்கிறேன் (Naan unnai kaadhalikkiren)

Way easier to say "I love you" instead and seal the deal by running around the trees!

Or, consider in Hindi (I hope I am correct here with my rudimentary knowledge that is nearly 30 years old): मैं तुमसे प्यार करता हूँ (Main tumse pyar karta hun)  Isn't the English version way easier for the mouth?

I like to also think that the words and sounds needed to express that feeling is why those were also not said much when I was a kid.  To this day, I have never heard my parents tell each other "I love you."  Of course, it is the cultural aspect here--where such expressions were not a part of the everyday existence.  I wonder if India has changed, and whether my generation, or their kids, freely say "I love you."

Back in my life in California, once we had invited over for dinner an older couple, who had immigrated from South Korea.  It was hilarious when during the conversation the wife remarked that her husband doesn't say "I love you" to her.

She then looked at him and practically dared him.  He didn't bite though!  My guess is that it is way more syllables in Korean than it is in English :)

He had a wonderful sense of humor, too and maybe that was his key to success at home and at his business. Without a pause, he replied in his Korean accent, "but, what has love got to do with marriage?"

We all laughed.  Unlike "I love you" laughter is easy and the same in any language.

8 comments:

Indu said...

:-) You have atleast one smart friend - He got it right!
Some wisdom there, I presume

Indu said...

oh yes- a follow up ; Its all about the money money money...!!!

hahaha!

Sriram Khé said...

"money, money, money" ... hmmmm ... must be funny, in a rich man's world ... not in mine ;)

Ramesh said...

Inspired by your style, I actually googled and found how to say I love you in various languages !! Your hypothesis won't stand up to my "peer review" :)

Easier languages

- Spanish/Portugese/Latin/Italian - Te amo or Ti amo (the most musical of all)
- Mandarin - Wo ai ni
- Even Korean - Sarang bae

But clearly Indians have never loved in the past - the most tongue twisting of phrases are all in Indian languages. But my prize for the most complex phrase goes to Hungarian. Its only one word but still how do you say Szeretlek !

Sriram Khé said...

Szeretlek, Ramesh ;)

That is neat that you looked up the different languages. Isn't it crazy that the Indian culture with all its tall tales of love and romance makes it so complicated in any language to say "I love you"????

Btw, there was no hypothesis, bud. I had carefully phrased it as "I like to think" ... haha ;)

Indu said...

@Ramesh- You are serious about the love business!!!
i dont know the other languages you mentioned so i stick to mandarin:
Have you actually tried saying Wo Ai ni the right way? the pin yin is simple -the tone isnt so.. I think Szretlek can work with less effort ;-) !!!


@Sriram- on a more down to earth note- think the indian culture knew too well to say your love is much more difficult and when said- can actually mean something quite other than what you mean. In my little experience with a few languages-The words in a language convey more than just the dictionary meaning of the words used in the context. It is after all an evolution of sounds - from the psyche of the people it represents (the sounds of their silence ??)
baah- it is becoming mushy now..

Sriram Khé said...

it will be awesome to watch the two of you with your indian origins speak chinese, however little you know of that language ....what a phenomenal achievement ... i bet in our younger high school days, this would have been way off even the wildest imaginations! we have all come long, long ways ...

indu, i have no idea what can be mushy given that the post itself is about "i love you" ;)

Ramesh said...

@Indu - Oh 我爱你 isn't so bad. Third tone, Fourth tone, Third tone - very musical in fact. Much practice in saying this to lovely Chinese girls - my team had some 400 of them ; so my intonation is perfect :) Thankfully we aren't trying Cantonese - that's the impossibility in tones !!

How come you picked up Chinese? Did you live in China anytime ?