this post was submitted on 10 Dec 2025
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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    • If your topic is in a grey area, please phrase it to emphasize the fascinating aspects, not the dramatic aspects. You can do this by avoiding overly politicized terms such as "capitalism" and "communism". If you must make comparisons, you can say something is different without saying something is better/worse.
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Transliterated country names into Chinese Language use pre-existing characters that already has its own meaning, therefore native Chinese speakers have a subconcious impression based on country names. (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 3 days ago by DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works to c/showerthoughts@lemmy.world
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Example:

USA 美国 - 美 mean "beautiful" and 国 is "country"

So when my mom told me we were going to move to 美国, I, having never heard of anything about this country ever before, already had a positive impression of this "beautiful country".

France 法国 - 法 is one of the characters in 法律, law, so my first impression was, that these people probably have very strict rules and are law abiders

Britain/UK 英国 - 英 is one of the characters in 英雄, hero, so I just imagine British people like to help the innocent (this was before I learned about British colonialism lol, but I guess the 英 character still sort of partly relevent, as in they view themselves as "hero", aka: they interfere with other's countries bussiness a lot)

Germany 德国 - 德 is one of the characters in 道德, morality, so I had a subconcious belief they were very moral people. I didn't even know about the holocaust yet. 💀

Mexico 墨西哥 - 墨 is ink, 哥 is brother, so I though these are dark-skinned people that value brotherhood, masculinity.

South Korea 韩国 - 韩 sounds like 寒, so I just assumed it was a very cold country (isn't it tho?) Oh BTW, I was in South Korea... in the airport waiting for a transfer flight, never actually entered the country for real, that was 15 years go, the closest I've ever been to South Korea. Wanna go there someday, see the snow (cuz its a 寒国 "cold country" remember xD)

Japan 日本 - 日 is the sun, so I thought it gets like very sunny or something

These are the few on the top of my head. You can mention any below and I can tell you what my "subconcious feel" about the name is.

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[–] shneancy@lemmy.world 2 points 23 hours ago

a language might be a tool we use, but it absolutely shapes the way we see the world itself to a significant degree, even to the point where speakers of different languages might disagree on basic physical facts

eg: if you ask an english speaker how many fingers they have - they'll answer 10. but if you answer a polish speaker - they'll answer 20. polish makes little linguistic distinction between fingers, and how we call them, foot fingers

this is one example of many. i find it deeply fascinating and quite scary. it feels weird to realise that my understanding of the world is broadened and structured better thanks to the fact i use a language to describe it, but there might be things i'll never notice, or will always confuse, simply because the tool i use is not perfect, and yet, that is the basis through which i perceive the world