FOREIGN WORD

There remains, in our experience of foreign words, a quiet memory of our own unfamiliarity with the word. Crème Brulee, we suspected it would have cream, but did not know.

The fact that the name was foreign hinted that it was nicer. Crème de la crème and elite: how rare, how nice, how smooth the words sound. Like pastry.

But why are foreign things nicer? Because only the very nicest ones make it all the way here. Immigrants from India who can afford to relocate and can find visas and work.

The fact that the word is foreign also suggests that it cannot be properly translated. Machismo. Bourgeois. Kangaroo. Dharma. Kamikaze. Czar. To understand the meaning of the word requires more than a dictionary definition, it requires some familiarity with the social, environmental, religious, or political realities involved. The very sense that one does not know these things remains an association for such words.