Engrish and Language Food for Thought

I thought, since I recently got home from a semi-lengthy trip to Europe, my Thoughtful Thursday would come from the trip. This is a little different from my "normal" thoughts that I love and try to post each week. All of those which I have posted thus far, have some sort of meaning to my life right now and with what exactly I am thinking in/about life. So, this week is more about a thought I have every time I travel or encounter people that don't speak English, or maybe only speak it a little bit.

 

This Engrish (an attempt at English) is probably some of the best I have ever seen when I have traveled. I generally travel with the same people...so over time, we have started little games and competitions. Finding amazing Engrish has become one of our games. About 6 years ago, when we traveled to China with Clog America, we found the most amusing, hysterical translations. We laughed for hours (and still laugh) about some of the things we saw translated that made absolutely no sense at all. From that point on, we decided every time we went abroad, we would make a point to find the best, most humorous translations we could. I have also found this website to be more than humorous from day to day. 

Anyhow, so how this all ties into what I am thinking...well, part of the reason I love to travel abroad is to be able to play the jovial, and at times frustrating, game of charades. I love the challenge of communicating this way. It makes me happy (most of the time). Language fascinates me though, including body language. It is amazing how much we can communicate without words. I also find it amazing though that despite language and different cultures, we are all humans and we all want the same underlying things. We experience the same emotions: love, pain, joy, fear, anger, disgust, optimism, anticipation, trust, surprise, happiness...you name it, we as humans experience it, despite language barriers, despite cultural barriers, despite religious barriers...our emotions are the same. This idea throws me into such a deep though about life, in general, and people. I have been comforted by someone that doesn't speak my language; I have been brought to anger, impatience, fear and disgust all by people that don't speak my same language (as I have possibly done this to others as well). I can honestly say I have loved many that don't speak my language and felt the love returned. It just amazes me. I think a lot of times we look at the differences between "us" and "them" and think those differences are SO large, but they aren't really. The differences, in my opinion, are but few and the similarities are many. 

I feel as if I can't completely get my thought and point across and I am now rambling, so I will stop. Bottom line, I love ENGRISH :)