Nunchi
Noun. (Korean)The subtle, often unnoticed art of listening and gauging another's mood.
Word Nerd Alert:
This is the first of several foreign words I chose for the challenge which do not have a comparable word translation in the English language. The first time I realized that words like this exist (in my youthful ignorance) I was sitting in college Japanese class. We were studying weather, and my professor was trying to explain the many different Japanese words that fall right through the words I know for describing 'rain' in English. My words: Rain, Drizzle, Sprinkle, Shower, Downpour, etc. make up the gamut of what I can call 'Rain'.
Some of my favorite Japanese rain words are:
Juuu = once in 10 days rain, ten-kyuu = rain from a cloudless sky, and yau = night rain.
The Japanese language has so many beautiful translations of ideas and qualities that I can't find an equal way to say using an English word. Be prepared to hear more about it in future challenge posts. Xxx
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