> in any less than perfect language there are things that you either cannot think about or are difficult to think about.
Not they they are difficult to think about, rather, it would have never occurred to you to think about it in the first place. As a person who learned multiple foreign languages, there many things that I can think about only in a certain language but not my native language (English). For example there are many meanings of “гулять” in Ukrainian and Russian that are not captured in English, and I never thought about those meanings before I learned Ukrainian and Russian.
Гулять literally means “to walk” but it is used to mean so much more than that. It also means to seek experiences, including sexual experiences. A person might complain they got married too early because “не нагулялся” or “didn’t walk enough”. While similar English expressions like “sow his wild oats” are used in English, it affects my thoughts differently to have so much meaning in the verb “to walk”. It literally changes how I think about walking through life.
Similarly when I learned Arabic, there are many meanings and thoughts that I only have in that language and would take entire essays to explain in English. Not because it can’t be explained in English (it can) but the notation is just not there to do it succinctly enough.
Not they they are difficult to think about, rather, it would have never occurred to you to think about it in the first place. As a person who learned multiple foreign languages, there many things that I can think about only in a certain language but not my native language (English). For example there are many meanings of “гулять” in Ukrainian and Russian that are not captured in English, and I never thought about those meanings before I learned Ukrainian and Russian.
Гулять literally means “to walk” but it is used to mean so much more than that. It also means to seek experiences, including sexual experiences. A person might complain they got married too early because “не нагулялся” or “didn’t walk enough”. While similar English expressions like “sow his wild oats” are used in English, it affects my thoughts differently to have so much meaning in the verb “to walk”. It literally changes how I think about walking through life.
Similarly when I learned Arabic, there are many meanings and thoughts that I only have in that language and would take entire essays to explain in English. Not because it can’t be explained in English (it can) but the notation is just not there to do it succinctly enough.