1---
2location: Buenos Aires
3description: Personal story on how words can be misused
4date: 2018-12-21
5---
6
7# Words
8
9I like words. I usually pay attention to what other people are saying. Sometimes it would be *easier* if I didn't. But easier doesn't mean better of course.
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11I know three different languages. And I know bits from few more. I like to reflect on the nature of words.
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13I had a personal example of language misuse that haunted me for at least a year.
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15Once my ex-partner called me an *evil* person. It was said in clear mind and repeated a lot of times during different occurrences afterwards.
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17That shocked me profoundly. I did know what *evil* means. I started to question myself a lot. Don't I know something about myself? Am I lying to myself? Do other people see something in me that I can't see? It was a lot of soul-searching. I started to pay attention to all the references of *good* and *evil* in the literature.
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19I grew up with these concepts. They were everywhere: fairy tails, cartoons, myths, films. I shivered every time I remembered this accusation. It was the opposite of what I believed in and valued.
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21Wikipedia gives this definition of *evil*:
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24> Evil, in a general sense, is the opposite or absence of good. It can be an extremely broad concept, though in everyday usage is often used more narrowly to denote profound wickedness.
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27For me, the simplest definition of *evil* is "premeditated act of doing something wrong."
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29And I was reading through definitions and reflecting time and time again. One day I confronted my ex-partner and explained what *evil *means according to other people. I asked if knowing this definition her accusation still holds true. She switched it to another term. Which ironically was also incorrect, but that is for another story.
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31I was a bit relieved after this. But I still didn't understand how did that happen in the first place. Why was I called *that* initially? What was the thing person *really* wanted to say?
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33In the last year, I believe I found answers to both of these questions.
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35The problem was that all that communication happened in the Ukrainian language.
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37In Ukrainian, the noun "evil" is "зло". And the adjective "evil" is "злий". So I was called *злий* meaning *evil person*. However, the problem that *angry* in Ukrainian is also *злий*. Ukrainian language simply doesn't have a separate word for *angry*. So *feeling angry* in Ukrainian is *being evil*. Those are two different things!
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39Ukrainian language doesn't have a separate word for one of the emotions or feelings (however we define it nowadays).
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41What is even more disturbing that "злий" word (meaning angry) has a very negative spin to it in my native language. When you have something that has negative connotation you want to get rid of it and dissociate yourself from it. Which is the wrong way to view anger altogether. It has its own function and is quite important. And if you reflect on your anger you would understand a lot about yourself.
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43Anyway, it was an Aha moment when I realized that all that happened just because Ukrainian language lacked one word in it.
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45Two lessons that I learned from this situation.
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47Listen to people, but make sure that you and they understand some basic words in the same way. A lot of miscommunication happens because people understand things differently. Read common definitions. That is precisely why we have vocabularies - to establish common meanings.
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49Cross check words from different languages. Cross check definitions. Some words are extremely outdated. We can create new words if needed too. Without past baggage. An environment in which we operate matters. Culture and language which surround us set defaults and context.
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51#language #words