There’s something fascinating about languages. They can tell you so much about people’s heritage, history and culture, and it is a great tool for training your brain to learn better. Some words are untranslatable in other languages, and those fascinate me even more. I get the feeling that people groups have certain things that are so important to them that they invent special words to describe them.

For example, in our home language, Romanian, the adjective dor refers to the feeling of missing someone or something. It is used in the same manner as being hungry, thirsty, cold or scared. But the depth of the feeling is so great that it does not properly translate to any other language I’m aware of. It is untranslatable.

In the Georgian language, I was amused to learn that there is a word, shemomechama, that roughly translates into “I accidentally ate the whole thing.” You might use this word in a case where, even if you were full, a particular food was so delicious that you couldn’t stop eating it. This word is right at home in this culture that lives for food and drink, and it definitely emphasizes the Georgian zest for life.

In the middle of the Georgian language storm in our heads, the untranslatable words are not exactly a problem. At least not as big a problem as the number of consonants that Georgian can string together in one word. I’m looking forward to the day when I’ll be able to remember how to spell mtsvrtneli. I’ll even settle for gvkvia. As if this wasn’t enough, counting in Georgian doesn’t involve language only, but mathematics as well, and it’s a known fact that I’m a bit challenged in that department. For example, the number 35 is actually worded “twenty-fifteen,” because Georgian numbers from 30 to 99 use the base-20 system. Learning two new languages (Russian and Georgian) via English has put a serious strain on our brains. That’s why my husband suddenly was speechless when asked what his age was in Georgian. It wasn’t because he couldn’t count in the base-20 system, or because he didn’t know the right words for it, but because he genuinely could not remember how old he was. This is the level of mental exhaustion sometimes caused by learning new languages and new cultures. It’s funny and scary at the same time.

But sometimes during this process you can also see your horizons slowly expanding. We can’t wait to be able to read the Georgian Bible, one of the earliest translations, seeing how much this text has built the foundation of this culture. Finding out that the word for human is adamiani, the word for giant is goliati, and the word for Saturday is shabati was interesting enough.

We wonder and imagine how our life and relationships here will look when we can finally speak the language fluently. We are longing for the day when this barrier will finally be broken down. We are longing for the day when the untranslatable words won’t be a problem anymore. We have dor for a day we haven’t seen yet. Will you pray that we can soon find the words to speak the Word?

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