Does Every Language Need a Word for Heimat?

Heimat is in. Here in Munich, there카지노 게임 컬렉션�s a specialist store for Heimatliebe und Herzlichkeit (카지노 게임 컬렉션�love of one카지노 게임 컬렉션�s home and cordial warmth카지노 게임 컬렉션�). What the shop actually sells: local travel guides, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�ironic카지노 게임 컬렉션� antlers and cuckoo clocks, and Bavarian recipe books 카지노 게임 컬렉션� including the latest edition of one from 1931, which my mum also received as a wedding present back in 1965.

While this is Heimat with a Bavarian flavor, regional traditions 카지노 게임 컬렉션� or kitsch 카지노 게임 컬렉션� are thriving everywhere. You can read Heimatkrimis (crime novels) set on the North Sea coast, browse Heimatblogs about the Pott (the Ruhr Area) or a Berlin Kiez (neighborhood), or flick through glossy magazines dedicated to country life.

In present-day Germany, however, 75% of the population live in towns or major cities rather than the countryside. The same generation that카지노 게임 컬렉션�s the target audience for hipster shirts with a pretzel print takes having international experience for granted. For example, since the ERASMUS exchange program was introduced 30 years ago, over 1.3 million German students spent at least a semester abroad.

Heimat and Home: Old Words for Essential Needs

The German word Heimat sometimes pops up in vocabulary lists making the rounds on the internet: words that should exist in English or that are impossible to translate. While translation isn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t impossible, it is hard to find one with all the same implied meanings.

Heimat contains the German noun Heim, which 카지노 게임 컬렉션� as you may have guessed 카지노 게임 컬렉션� is very closely related to the English 카지노 게임 컬렉션�home카지노 게임 컬렉션�. Both are some of the oldest words in these languages, going all the way back to early medieval Old High German and Old English.

If you want to get really technical, the words are even older. Both English and German are Indo-European languages. Whether we say Heimat, Heim, or 카지노 게임 컬렉션�home카지노 게임 컬렉션�, they all have their origin in the ancient South Asian language Sanskrit from a verb that means 카지노 게임 컬렉션�to stay카지노 게임 컬렉션�, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�to live somewhere카지노 게임 컬렉션�, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�to dwell카지노 게임 컬렉션�.

Those 3,000 years of linguistic history highlight some of the oldest and most important human needs: to have a place to stay, gather round the fire, share your food, and feel safe.

Is Heimat a Bad, Bad Word?

Heimat has all the positive connotations of feeling at home, where it카지노 게임 컬렉션�s cozy and safe, but it hasn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t always been an uncontroversial word.

At best, Heimat is something slightly old-fashioned, full of naïve sentimentalism, a simplistic idyll far from reality. In 1950s Germany, antlers were a very popular and completely unironic kind of home decoration, and the era카지노 게임 컬렉션�s most successful movies were called Heimatfilme (카지노 게임 컬렉션�homeland films카지노 게임 컬렉션�). These feel-good flicks full of technicolor scenery and black-and-white morality were still broadcast on TV decades later.

At worst, Heimat can be even more dire than suffering through yet another rerun of Grün ist die Heide (카지노 게임 컬렉션�How Green is the Heath카지노 게임 컬렉션�) with your aged relatives. It can be provincial, narrow-mined, or exclusionary. It may also imply protecting your home from something scary 카지노 게임 컬렉션� or just from someone else: those who are not 카지노 게임 컬렉션�from here카지노 게임 컬렉션�; those who have the 카지노 게임 컬렉션�wrong카지노 게임 컬렉션� dialect or customs or religion or skin color; those whose family hasn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t lived here for hundreds of years.

Home Is Not (Always) a Place

What if you can카지노 게임 컬렉션�t trace your local family tree back a dozen generations? If you identify with more than one city, region, or country? Or if you move frequently as an adult, as many expats do? What is your Heimat? Is it your birthplace? Your parents카지노 게임 컬렉션�? The place where you카지노 게임 컬렉션�ve lived the longest?

There is another meaning of Heimat that hasn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t been explored yet. From its earliest usage in the German language, the word has always told a story of loss or longing. There카지노 게임 컬렉션�s no place like home 카지노 게임 컬렉션� but home isn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t necessarily a place.

In more religious times, the 카지노 게임 컬렉션�friedesamu heimote카지노 게임 컬렉션� (카지노 게임 컬렉션�peaceful home카지노 게임 컬렉션�) was only found in heaven. Centuries later, philosophy turned the concept of humanity카지노 게임 컬렉션�s true home into a more secular thought: maybe humankind was doomed to be heimatlos (카지노 게임 컬렉션�homeless카지노 게임 컬렉션�) in an existential sense, always longing to belong somewhere but never arriving anywhere.

Fortunately, you don카지노 게임 컬렉션�t need to start reading Heidegger & Co to get a feeling for that sense of Heimat. It카지노 게임 컬렉션�s right there in the word Heimweh, which translates as 카지노 게임 컬렉션�longing for home카지노 게임 컬렉션� or 카지노 게임 컬렉션�nostalgia카지노 게임 컬렉션�, the ache of coming home. It카지노 게임 컬렉션�s a very familiar feeling, that search for familiarity, safety, and love.

Making It Home

Today, the world seems smaller than ever. We have more opportunities to explore other cultures, more connections with people from other countries, more freedom to find our place in life 카지노 게임 컬렉션� anywhere we want. Expanding our horizons can be both exhilarating and unsettling, and everyone reacts to it differently.

Some people prefer to go back to their roots: they might move back to the small town they once wanted to escape from, only venturing out for their annual vacation. Other people just buy countryside magazines or 카지노 게임 컬렉션�ironic카지노 게임 컬렉션� cuckoo clocks, which secretly remind them of happy childhood moments spent in their granny카지노 게임 컬렉션�s living room. 

And yet others find a home in the feeling of Heimat itself. The German Duden dictionary also defines Heimat as an 카지노 게임 컬렉션�emotional expression that suggests a strong attachment to a specific place카지노 게임 컬렉션�. If we talk about someone카지노 게임 컬렉션�s 카지노 게임 컬렉션�spiritual카지노 게임 컬렉션� home, 카지노 게임 컬렉션�second카지노 게임 컬렉션� home, or 카지노 게임 컬렉션�new카지노 게임 컬렉션� home, it doesn카지노 게임 컬렉션�t matter if you were born in that place or how long you카지노 게임 컬렉션�ve lived there. It only matters that you feel a sense of belonging, that you have finally arrived. Home is where the heart is, and all that.

Yes, there카지노 게임 컬렉션�s a very handy German term for that too: Wahlheimat 카지노 게임 컬렉션� the home you choose. Now that카지노 게임 컬렉션�s a word that should definitely exist in every language!