Wild Hyperbole

“Have you ever noticed how everyone around here speaks in wild hyperbole? Everything’s ‘the best’.”

-Liberal Arts (2012)

I have noticed something very specific and very interesting about American culture and language. We speak in wild hyperbole. We say “it was the best sandwich I’ve ever eaten” or “he’s the best author in the world”. Americans exaggerate everything. If you ask your friend how the movie was and they say “it was good”, your first reaction might be “just good?” Americans use ‘good’ as a starting point. We have so many words that are better than ‘good’. We use ‘awesome’, ‘great’, and ‘amazing’. We only use ‘good’ when it could have been better, but wasn’t bad.

In Hungary, the best word to use in every situation is jó (good). There are translations for nagyszerű (great) and csodálatos (wonderful), but these words are seldom used. They are saved for things that are actually great, I always come back from these Rotary trips and have a hard time telling my host family that it was ‘good’. I always want to say more. In Hungary, ‘good’ has a stronger meaning than it does in America. I also have a hard time expressing when something was “good, but not great”. That’s what I would say in English, but then it would be understood as better than it was because ‘good’ means more in Hungary.

This has a lot to do with Hungarian culture. In America, “Everything is awesome” and our language is changing quickly. ‘Awesome’ used to mean “extremely impressive or daunting; inspiring awe”. Words like rad, dope, sweet, groovy, and hip came in (and out) of style. We feel like we need to exaggerate everything and that says a lot about our culture

The Hungarian culture is much more calm and reserved. Hungary has been conquered and oppressed throughout its entire history. Hungarians are always waiting for the other shoe to drop and they take good news and bad news the same way: calm and reserved. In one of my English classes, we had to do a short review of Romeo and Juliet. I asked the teacher if the language of the translation was difficult to read. She said no, the translation sounds like contemporary Hungarian because the language hasn’t changed.

In America, we are taught in school to write strong adjectives. Don’t say ‘very good’, say ‘amazing’ Don’t say ‘very big’, say ‘gigantic’. In everyday speech, I’ve heard nagyon jó (very good) ten times more than I’ve heard nagyserű (great). Hungarians opt for the ‘very’ form instead of using strong adjectives like American students are taught.

I think this study of language gives us valuable insight into the cultures that use it. Americans move quickly and we’ve escalated to saying thing are ‘the best’ when Hungarians can say that something was simply good.

Hungarians also ask negative questions. Instead of asking “are you hungry?” (éhes vagy?) they ask “aren’t you hungry?” (nem vagy éhes?) A lot of questions are framed like this: aren’t you . . . don’t you want . . . You could say that Hungarians have a negative mindset, but could you really blame them?

I thought I’d write this study of language and culture in honor of language camp (coming up this week). Expect another post early next month on that subject. I am so excited for language camp!

-Alina