My first language was German. I was educated in English. I speak French at home with my children. With the arrival/addition of each language in/to my life came the addition of new concepts, new ways of thinking or ways to articulate something that had, up to then, simply been floating through me un-named and so un-thought. Not necessarily un-lived but not “known” in this way.

Now I find that none of the languages I know is complete. And, I often wonder how much more I could think, how much more I could know, how much more I could live, how much more I could “be” if I knew more languages.

My allusion to Faust is that — in my very short version of the story — Faust sells his soul for “all knowledge”. Yes. I get that. The more you know the more you realize you don’t know. It feels exponential. It is at times overwhelming. It is like the perspective we find on looking at the night sky. At first we see a few stars and soon — if we keep looking, keep searching — we see how endless the sea of them is. And “I”, at least, am quickly put into perspective. A little dot. On earth. Not emitting a whole lot of light that could perhaps in some future time be seen by some other dot taking the time to look at what else is out there or to find where on earth s/he is.

So… languages… I will use this space to write about words and concepts and structures that exist in German or in French and that have no direct translation into English. Does this mean that we-who-speak-English don’t live these things? Aren’t aware of these things? Have other ways of dealing (or not) with these things? Maybe. And, does this mean that it’s either good or bad? Not really. It simply is. We simply are. We can/could all be “more”.

(And, yes, I have always thought that one day I would like to write about words and concepts that I would like to banish from the English language. “Would” and “could” are first on that list :o)