Ukrainian Language Day, 9 November 2013

A good Ukrainian Language and Writing Day to everyone.

Learning a language slowly gives you one advantage: you notice the words that do not map onto anything you already have.

My favourite is the verb used for the particular kind of care taken over someone or something valuable — closer to tending than to protecting, with an implication of continuous small attention rather than a single act. English needs a sentence. Turkish needs a sentence. Here it is one word and everyone uses it about ordinary things: a garden, a child, a recipe.

A language tells you what its speakers considered worth having a single word for. That is why learning one slowly is more interesting than learning it fast.

To the teachers, editors and translators: today is yours.