- Home
- Member
- Tsuki
- Tsuki's entries
- Happiness/Death at work
Happiness/Death at work
- 334
- 7
- 1
I learned that there is an interesting word in Danish: arbejdsglæde which means or "happiness at work." It was introduced in an English audiobook called "The Year of Living Danishly," and the way the author put it made me laugh awkwardly.
"From arbejd, the Danish for 'work,' and glæde, from the word for 'happiness,' it literally means 'happiness at work' - something that's crucial to living the good life for Scandinavians."
"By contrast, the Japanese have their own word that sums up their approach to work: karoshi, meaning, death from overwork."
...I really didn't think any Japanese facts would get shoved up in there. The author is English and the book is about Denmark lol
Yes, we are notorious for having working hours that are so long people get ill and die. We really have to change that or I'm sure we will get left behind other countries.
BUT! Language learners out there would find interesting that Japanese has words for pretty much every way people can die. 病死(death from disease,) 事故死(death from accident,) 溺死(death from drowning,) 焼死(death from burning,) 窒息死(death from choking,) 衰弱死(death from wasting away,) and so on. Karoshi is one of them.
Personally, I switched jobs last year because I'd come too close to karoshi, and now am working in a more comfortable environment. I hear people overseas switch companies more often, and I think we should too, so that we can stop dying from overwork and find happiness at work.
"From arbejd, the Danish for 'work,' and glæde, from the word for 'happiness,' it literally means 'happiness at work' - something that's crucial to living the good life for Scandinavians."
"By contrast, the Japanese have their own word that sums up their approach to work: karoshi, meaning, death from overwork."
...I really didn't think any Japanese facts would get shoved up in there. The author is English and the book is about Denmark lol
Yes, we are notorious for having working hours that are so long people get ill and die. We really have to change that or I'm sure we will get left behind other countries.
BUT! Language learners out there would find interesting that Japanese has words for pretty much every way people can die. 病死(death from disease,) 事故死(death from accident,) 溺死(death from drowning,) 焼死(death from burning,) 窒息死(death from choking,) 衰弱死(death from wasting away,) and so on. Karoshi is one of them.
Personally, I switched jobs last year because I'd come too close to karoshi, and now am working in a more comfortable environment. I hear people overseas switch companies more often, and I think we should too, so that we can stop dying from overwork and find happiness at work.
Journal Statistics
Latest entries
| Talking about appearance (3) |
| Perks of knowing another language (3) |
| Happiness/Death at work (8) |
| How To Place Chopstics (6) |
| Being Scared (6) |
Entries by Month
my case i change job too often which makes other people think i am an unstable person
I learned that there is an interesting word in Danish: arbejdsglæde which means or "happiness at work." It was introduced in an English audiobook called "The Year of Living Danishly," and the way the author put it made me laugh awkwardly.
Yes, we are notorious for having working hours so long that people get ill and die.
病死(death from disease,) 事故死(death from accident,) 溺死(death from drowning,) 焼死(death from burning,) 窒息死(death from choking,) 衰弱死(death from wasting away,) and so on.
Commas inside the parentheses look strange to me (I'd put it after), but not sure if this depends on country or not.
Karoshi is just one of them.
Just for emphasis that it's one of many of these kind of words.
Yeah, I know what you mean. What constitutes a word varies a lot depending on the language. In English, we tend to combine words into phrases than make a single longer word. So I don't it's really profound to say, "Wow, in Japanese/German/etc they have a single word for X, unlike English!" But we hear that a lot anyway. Like this famous one:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eskimo_words_for_snow
It's not very meaningful in my opinion. Yes, we say "wet snow" instead of "wetsnow". Some languages just make doing the latter easier with its language constructs. That's all. It makes even less sense when you're comparing English to a language that doesn't have spaces... (^_^;)
Not to say there aren't some concepts/phrases that don't exist in other languages, but that's a bit different.
In this case, karoshi is somewhat commonly used, so even though you shouldn't be excited that it's a single word, it does represent part of our culture (sadly). The word is actually made up to raise awareness, so it's doing its job after all. :p
The controversy on Eskimo words is really interesting! For someone like me who grew up with a lot of snow, it's kind of relatable as well. We have about 10 ways to call different types of snow, and people in the mainland think it's unique or cool.
Reminds me of this song. It's not about Hokkaido, but close enough. https://youtu.be/x95PpxnT2VE
from 1:17
It's true, living in a desert where it snowed maybe once every 10 years, I didn't need to know words like sleet, slush, powder, freezing rain, etc. If it snowed, it's just "snow" and nothing more. (^_^;) Living in an area where snow is important to the local culture is completely different. You actually have reasons for differentiating between them. But I guess that's obvious.
So yeah, I think it's more cultural than the language itself... but I do have to admit, it sure seems easier to coin new words/phrases in Japanese than English. It's just not as concise in English sometimes... and that's frustrating when translating and ending up with an unwieldy/long phrase that can't be condensed further. It happens in both directions for sure, but I feel it happening more in one direction.
So you have to translate a lot lately? English and Japanese are really far apart in terms of grammar structure. Translated sentences tend to be a little off. I feel your pain!
Not just that though. Sometimes just in normal conversation, answering "How do you say this in English?" can be difficult. I end up with a long, awkward phrase which gets me thinking, "There must be a better way to say that in English", but sometimes there's just nothing. At least nothing that I'm satisfied with.
I've been asked "how do you say 'I hope you are well' in Japanese?" once. She wanted to know "hope" in Japanese. My answer was "you can just ask お元気ですか, and if you really want them to be well, add お体にお気をつけて when you finish." She wasn't very satisfied. Me either, but sometimes translation is just too hard.