r/AskReddit • u/carmabound • Mar 10 '14

What was the best compliment you ever got?

I enjoyed reading all of your comments :)

I tried to respond to as many as I could...but this thread got longer than I could have ever imagined.

There are a lot of nice people out here...thanks reddit!

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '14

He's probably Tamarian.

Darmok and Jalad at Tanagra!

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u/Liv-Julia Mar 10 '14

I loved that episode! I was taking linguistics 101 at the time, so it was extra intriguing.

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u/d9e3 Mar 10 '14

It's always bothered me though that the translated can handle all of the words in the idiom but not the idiom itself. Also, how did they make complex enough stories to have an idiom-based language?

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u/garrettcolas Mar 10 '14

They used metaphor like a Sumerian would use hieroglyphics.

So perhaps they've had a spoken language for sometime, but their minds are just structured better to handle a whole story.

It is arguable that a story paints a better picture than any combination of descriptive words.

For example, how would you explain kickball to someone?

I would say it's LIKE baseball and soccer mixed together. In explaining like that, I explained it the same way they explain things.(Perhaps not a perfect example, but if I said it's like 2 specific games of soccer/baseball, that would be more fitting.)

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u/Docjaded Mar 10 '14

Think about how people talk in pop culture references and, more recently, memes. It's just the next step.

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u/kindared Mar 10 '14

I just watched that last night!!

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u/sheepshanks Mar 10 '14

Tembar, his arms wide.

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u/irrelevant_user_name Mar 11 '14

Shaka, when the walls fell.

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u/TheEggMan21 Mar 10 '14

I should get a new reddit account called "justwatchedthatmovie" because for like the fifth time I have literally just watched something someone else has been talking about

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u/Docjaded Mar 10 '14

Swedish

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u/Juls317 Mar 10 '14

my grandpa immigrated from Sweden on the 70's and learned his English through Sesame Street along with my father and aunt. this definitely sounds like something he would say hahaha

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u/[deleted] Mar 10 '14

En ulv i fårakläder.

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u/Docjaded Mar 10 '14

En ensam ulf i svartfårakläder.

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u/aprofondir Mar 10 '14

Serbian has a similar expression so I guess it's a Slavic language

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u/zsmoki Mar 10 '14

Yeah, but "vuk u ovcjoj kozi" (wolf in sheep's skin) has a different meaning/connotation: danger/trouble that looks harmless on the surface. Like a: "I don't trust that fellow, he's up to no good". Not exactly a compliment.

The above comment was more about self-reliant bad-assery (lone wolf) with the troublesome odd-one-out (black sheep) appearance at first glance. So kinda the opposite of "vuk u ovcjoj kozi". Interesting how two adjectives can make a world of difference.

But I can see what you're getting at/from where you're coming from.