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To swallow a camel

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I was chatting and learning with my friend Bard. I was also trying to get ideas for something to write about. I asked Bard what the word "peace" is in different languages. The word for peace in Danish is fred and this got my attention because Fred would be a person to me. I asked Bard for quotes about peace by people named Fred and came across the person Fred Friendly who was once the president of CBS news. Speaking of names, does being Danish have anything to do with a person named Dan? Probably not but it would be funny cool if it did.

I asked Bard to give me some interesting Danish phrases and I was not disappointed. At gå som katten om den varme grød - To go around the hot porridge like a cat. This means to be hesitant or indecisive. Klap lige hesten - Pat the horse. This means to calm down or relax. Sluge en kamel - To swallow a camel. This means to accept something that you don't like or agree with. According to Bard the phrase might have originated from the Bible where Jesus is criticizing the Pharisees for straining out a gnat from their drink but swallowing a camel.

Now I am pestering Bard to tell me of other languages that has interesting phrases with the camel. In Arabic they say: jamal bikhamisat arajil - a camel with five legs. This means something that is impossible or unattainable. In Chinese they say: luò tuó chuān zhēn yǎn - a camel threading a needle. This means to do something that is extremely difficult or impossible. In French they say: avoir un chameau sur le dos - to have a camel on your back. This means to have a heavy burden or responsibility. In German they say: man kann nicht auf zwei Kamelen gleichzeitig reiten - you can't ride two camels at the same time. This means that you cannot have two things that are mutually exclusive.

Something that I came across and that I found interesting is linguistic relativism. The hypothesis that the structure of a language influences its speakers' worldview or cognition. An example is in the Arabic language where there are three words for camel, there is a word for a camel with a single hump, a word for a camel with two humps, and a word for a camel with a very long neck.

All these just proves to me how beautiful and powerful language can be. The poet Mahmoud Darwish once wrote, "Jamal al-lugha huwa marqebuna ila bilad al-ahlam" which translates to: the camel of language is our ship to the land of dreams. Just like the camel uses its hump to survive in harsh environments, we can use language to make the best of any situation. By using language fully, we can connect with others on a deeper level, create lasting change, and leave a positive mark on the world.
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