Comments on: How to: Eat a new language

By: Dani

Dani — Sun, 01 May 2011 05:57:30 +0000

“Delicious” in bahasa Indonesia is “Enak.”

Enak sekali = very delicious!

Enak also refers to the body when feeling ill. When you are sick, you would say, “saya tidak enak badan,” which translates literally to “My body is not delicious.”

By: Martijn

Martijn — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 10:16:46 +0000

In Dutch it is heerlijk (approximation: hear-luck) or (using the infamous dutch G) erg lekker (erkh leck-ur)

By: Maureen Maloney

Maureen Maloney — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:14:16 +0000

This article is so true! ‘Delicious’ was one of the first words I learned when I moved to Madagasar. In Malagasy it’s “matsiro” (maht-see-roo)

By: Erin

Erin — Thu, 28 May 2009 18:18:59 +0000

In Hebrew, it is טעים — ta-eem. To say very delicious it’s ta-eem meh-ode!

By: Ryukyu Mike

Ryukyu Mike — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:11:54 +0000

In Okinawan dialect it’s “masan”- “iipei masan”=very delicious!

By: eileen

eileen — Sat, 09 May 2009 22:22:26 +0000

And in Chile we’ve got Dominó (as opposed to Dominos in the US), where they serve a variety of hotdog plus mayo, avocado and tomatoes and variations thereon. It’s just what the cardiologist ordered, I’m sure. It’s called a completo. And don’t be afraid of the jugo de tuna, it’s not “tuna” juice, rather juice made of prickly pear cactus. And it’s delicious.

Great article. I like the part about using sample phrases to figure out the rest of the grammar. What can I say, I was born and continue to be a language geek.

Note: exquisito is yummy in Spanish and in neighboring Brazil it means strange, and not in a good way.

By: Shreya

Shreya — Fri, 08 May 2009 01:37:49 +0000

Great post Turner!
In Hindi, the word for delicious is “swadisht”. And not all Indian food is teardrop-inducingly spicy.

By: Turner

Turner — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:43:54 +0000

Yeah, but I just love yelling “oishiyo!”

By: Tim Patterson

Tim Patterson — Thu, 07 May 2009 01:18:03 +0000

More important that oishi in Japan is “itadakimasu!” which is polite to say before you partake of food or drink.

By: Sarah

Sarah — Wed, 06 May 2009 22:34:37 +0000

Could not agree more about the importance of food to culture and language. My first interactions with a place are always in tiny restaurants and markets. In China, I knew the vocabulary for three varieties of dumplings before I knew how to say where I was from. And in Mexico I think I know just about every variation on “que rico”:

“Esta bien rico, verdad?”

“Ay, esta riquisima!”

and so on and so on….

I learned “oishi” because I became addicted to the supermarket samples here in Japan and I had to ingratiate them into giving me more.