Discussion Expressing Hurt beyond English

[mold]

Wasn't sure what to tag this, but I was just sitting and thinking about it, and I also study/studied linguistics in uni.

I know this forum is in English, but as someone who is bilingual and fluent in both English and my native language, I think and speak and express myself in both. In my language, there are way more words to express feelings (both physical and emotional) and emotions than in English in my opinion.

There are a lot of words I have in my first language that I feel perfectly describes the emotions and hurt that I feel, especially all the negative ones. But when I try to express myself in English the best I can muster up is words like "hurt", "pain", "dread", or "suffering", and can't find the words in the English dictionary to perfectly describe my pain.

Do you guys speak any other languages or have experiences like this with language? Does it help to vent in one language over another for you personally? I'm just curious.

 

[heiwa2]

Iam not a native Japanese speaker but to me japnese words feel way more expressive than English words in terms of emotions and even the words of my native language. While hearing words like 痛い, 苦し, さびし, こはい you can feel the emotions. While the english words feel more rigid and analytical than emotional.

 

[mold]

Iam not a native Japanese speaker but to me japnese words feel way more expressive than English words in terms of emotions and even the words of my native language. While hearing words like 痛い, 苦し, さびし, こはい you can feel the emotions. While the english words feel more rigid and analytical than emotional.

haha funnily enough my first language is Japanese! I think the word i struggle to translate most emotionally might be 辛い or 懐かしい, which I would say the closest English equivalents are "suffering" and "nostalgia/nostalgic" but it feels slightly... different? Off? I'd say your examples do have close English counterparts, but I can definitely see them being slightly different too in certain contexts that English can't explain...