Reading. Emotions and Language. Pre-Intermediate

How are you feeling?

According to the psychologist Paul Ekman, there are six universal emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust. People all over the world ¹ ______   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H] and most languages have words to describe them. Although we don’t all behave in the same way ² _______   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H], we know exactly what these emotions are. But what about more complex emotions? Do people from different countries experience them in the same way? Do Ukrainians recognise exactly the same emotions as Brazilians or Germans, for example?
Dr Tim Lomas of the University of East London ³ _______   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H] when he came across an interesting Finnish word: sisu. This means determination and bravery, not being afraid to try to do something although ⁴ _____   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H] or maybe even impossible. There is no exact translation of this word in English, and that made Dr Lomas curious. Do English-speaking people never feel sisu? He started to search for other untranslatable words, and he didn’t limit his search to European languages only. Some of the words he found are Huron, Sanskrit and Inuit, for example. So far, he only has one Ukrainian word: кохати.
Dr Lomas has started putting the words into a lexicon online. The Positive Lexicography Project is a list of untranslatable words related to well-being. But how do you describe an emotion when there is ⁵ ______   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H]? Can you explain it to speakers of other languages, or can only Ukrainians really know what нівроку feels like, only Swedish speakers understand resfeber (the feeling of excitement and nervousness experienced by a traveller before starting a journey), and only the Greek feel ελευθερομανία (a strong desire for freedom)? Dr Lomas thinks that people only give names to the feelings they experience often or see as important, and different cultures might have different ideas about what these are. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t experience emotions we don’t have words for. He also believes that language can shape the way we think, so ⁶ ______   [A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H] to describe an emotion, we can then recognise the feeling the next time we experience it.

A. no word for it in another language

B. became interested in this question

C. don’t understand the meaning

D. can recognise these feelings

E. when we learn a new word

F. some are difficult to translate

G. when we feel sad or angry

H. you know that it is very difficult

How are you feeling?

According to the psychologist Paul Ekman, there are six universal emotions: happiness, sadness, fear, surprise, anger, and disgust. People all over the world can recognise these feelings and most languages have words to describe them. Although we don’t all behave in the same way when we feel sad or angry, we know exactly what these emotions are. But what about more complex emotions? Do people from different countries experience them in the same way? Do Ukrainians recognise exactly the same emotions as Brazilians or Germans, for example?

Dr Tim Lomas of the University of East London became interested in this question when he came across an interesting Finnish word: sisu. This means determination and bravery, not being afraid to try to do something although you know that it is very difficult or maybe even impossible. There is no exact translation of this word in English, and that made Dr Lomas curious. Do English-speaking people never feel sisu? He started to search for other untranslatable words, and he didn’t limit his search to European languages only. Some of the words he found are Huron, Sanskrit and Inuit, for example. So far, he only has one Ukrainian word: кохати.

Dr Lomas has started putting the words into a lexicon online. The Positive Lexicography Project is a list of untranslatable words related to well-being. But how do you describe an emotion when there is no word for it in another language? Can you explain it to speakers of other languages, or can only Ukrainians really know what нівроку feels like, only Swedish speakers understand resfeber (the feeling of excitement and nervousness experienced by a traveller before starting a journey), and only the Greek feel ελευθερομανία (a strong desire for freedom)? Dr Lomas thinks that people only give names to the feelings they experience often or see as important, and different cultures might have different ideas about what these are. However, this doesn’t mean that we can’t experience emotions we don’t have words for. He also believes that language can shape the way we think, so when we learn a new word to describe an emotion, we can then recognise the feeling the next time we experience it.

Tim Lomas decided to study emotions vocabulary after he heard a Sanskrit word.