For example, you put yourself through university by studying hard and working full time. Then someone says, you should thank god for giving you the strength. Like wtf do you mean, I busted my ass day in and day out but I’m supposed to thank god for it?
Atheist here. No, I don’t. The religious person who put in the work still put in the work, through their faith in God. The Atheist does it through their faith in themselves. It’s the same energy, because the religious person doesn’t think they have it in them. They do, but God makes it manageable. I get that. So when they say it about you, they’re just using tense they understand.
Like when they say “bless you” when you sneeze. They’re wishing you health in terms they understand.
Bless you is a great example. I don’t think most people say things like bless you or God gave you the strength to be literally religious, they’re just a spiritual person’s way of being polite.
Interesting observation - where I live many / most people will say Salud (good health) when someone sneezes, as an intentionally secular version of the more traditional Jesus
I was raised to say gesundheit. It’s German and basically means something like “here’s to your health.” Apple’s translation service says it just means “health”.
It does mean literally health.
Thanks. I saw someone else say that, and then I used Apple Translate (what’s built into my computer) to translate it. I’m part German but I’m not from Germany and I don’t speak German. I know a couple dozen words, mostly thanks to Rammstein, but my father taught me gesundheit.
Funny thing about languages, and I’m not sure English really does this. You sneeze in Germany, people say “health,” but what they mean is, “to your health” or similar. In Japan, you might be called an “otaku”, which is sort of a badge of honour in the west, as it is taken to mean you are a fan of something and very knowledgeable on the subject. In Japanese, it just means “house” or “your house” — as in, you never leave it. If someone calls you “otaku” in Japanese, they’re saying you never leave your house, you’re a basement dweller, you need to touch grass, and so on. Sure, in the west you can be a “homebody,” someone who prefers to stay at home, but not a “home.” It’s also early, so while I know a couple dozen words in German and like 5 dozen words in Japanese, English is my first language and it may very well have similar terms, I’m just blanking right now.
Yeah, you’re right, the implied meaning can be better translated with more words than the litteral one. And it’s nice to encounter a fellow German-through-Rammstein student ❤️🔥 (Mein Herz Brennt)
Thats a beautiful way to think about it