this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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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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Usually its like just a few words sprinkled in, or at most like one or two lines...

Literally I feel like they're just trying to say: "Hey this is a foreign language I'm sooo cooool!"

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[–] leadore@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Bismillah, No!

[–] artwork@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Wonderful day!

Just in case, there's a term in "anglicism":

...word or construction borrowed from English by another language. Due to the global dominance of English in the 20th and 21st centuries, many English terms have become widespread in other languages.
Technology-related English words like internet and computer are prevalent across the globe, as there are no pre-existing words for them.
English words are sometimes imported verbatim and sometimes adapted to the importing language in a process similar to anglicisation.

Source

For more than a decade, I've been trying to learn Russian, mostly for the art and the job I have. And, I did notice that there are words, in common/casual speech that do indeed include pure English terms/words, or even adapted from.
There's a Russian page for "Anglicism", too:
- https://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%90%D0%BD%D0%B3%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%86%D0%B8%D0%B7%D0%BC%D1%8B

It makes sense, since it's one of the most easiest languages out there, with straightforward rules, with some exceptions you get on the road, and rare/archaic words you get eventually memorized in your own dictionary.
The Email messages are in the common/formal form/template even, you may know, too! I.e., header/body/footer/signature.

For example, I'll try recalling some:

- "гаджет" ~ "gadget";
- "дилер" ~ "dealer";
- "фрилансер" ~ "freelancer";
- "комп"/"компьютер" ~ "computer";
- "чилить"/"чилю" ~ "chilling";
- "таск" ~ "task";
- "бейба" ~ "baby";
- "чика" ~ "chick";
- "аутсорсинг" ~ "outsource";
- "секси" ~ "sexy";
- "гайд" ~ "guide";
- "булинг" ~ "bulling";
- "трабл" ~ "trouble";
- "маркетинг" ~ "marketing";
- "постить" ~ "to post" (social network posts/articles);
- "гамать" ~ "to play a game";
- "клатч" ~ "clutch";
- "дедлайн" ~ "deadline";
- "бит" ~ "bit";
- "байт" ~ "byte";
- "клуб" ~ "club";
...
- or even... "эйчар" ~ "HR" (head hunter, employer)...

These I recalled now only, and I do believe it's possible to write/base any English word in Russian.
Though, nowadays, my main is English, I was born in Lithuania, and Lithuanian language does also feature such words!
For example, "skenuoti" (to scan); "baitas" (byte), "seifas" (safe/safebox); "clubas" (club); etc.

Such a miraculous magnificent world of language development!

[–] ejs@piefed.social 1 points 2 months ago (1 children)

global dominance of English in the 20th and 21st centuries is quite the euphemism for the global imperialist reign of Britain and the US and its cultural erasure globally

[–] ricecake@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's really not a euphemism. There will always be a language that's the most common for international trade, diplomacy, travel, and general discourse.

It was not always English, even when Britain was at the peak of its empire.

It's easy to claim that it's role as the lingua franca is bolstered by the international position of the US and Britain over the past 150 ish years, but that doesn't make it a euphemism.

[–] teslekova@sh.itjust.works 1 points 2 months ago

Yeah, the lingua franca used to be French. 😄

[–] drsaxoncrawfish@lemmy.today 3 points 2 months ago

Languages do borrow words from other languages, but this is not the phenomenon we see that OP is referencing. They are not talking about Japanese words borrowed from English. They mean entire choruses or strings of lyrics which are just put forth rendered in English (think "Let's Fighting Love." etc. Myriad examples of JPOP in particular doing this can be found in seconds.) Yes, I know you can point out a number of American songs which do this. You're very smart, but if you actually look at the numbers, non-anglosphere artists do this much more with English than the other way round.

In addition, the borrowing of words or the use of phrases from other languages by speakers of said languages does not change the place of a language in the family tree of languages. Japanese is not related to Chinese, despite more than 40% of its vocabulary being borrowed from Chinese.

English is firmly a Germanic language when examined from any real linguistic standpoint and not just what some idiot said on Tumblr 15 years ago when they realized English has some borrowed French vocabulary (which... spoiler alert: so do all of the other Germanic languages). I also find it interesting that the same pseudo-intellectuals who insist this would never insist that French, Italian or Spanish were not truly Romance languages, despite the massive borrowings into these languages of Germanic vocabulary through Gothic and Frankish which occurred in late antiquity and the early Middle Ages.

Look at the most basic and familiar registers of a language as far as vocabulary goes, look at grammar and syntax, phonology, etc. when classifying a language. The existence of borrowed vocbulary doesn't change this any more than wearing a kimono or drinking green tea would make me "part Japanese."

To answer the question: it is used as a virtue signal because English is the prestige languge of global capitalism right now. This is the same reason why self-hating anglophones think of it what they do: global capitalism treats it as a default setting (at least the most sterile, corporate-approved registers of the language, anyway.) Instead of a rich linguistic heritage, they see it the same way a fish sees water or we see the air.

[–] Hikermick@lemmy.world 3 points 2 months ago

Maybe English speaking people with tattoos of Chinese letters is the equivalent?

[–] Hegar@fedia.io 3 points 2 months ago

Because of the US and british empires, english functions as a prestige language, the language of international trade and english language media is widespread. Many people know at least a little english, and most languages have english loan words.

Plenty of US english songs have the odd spanish word. Doesn't 小蘋果 have a korean bit? Even hebrew prayers break into aramaic every now and again.

We live in a multi-lingual world and our songs reflect that.

[–] Alatarius@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 months ago

This entire conversation reminds me of this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fU-wH8SrFro

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

That feeling when you go to block someone, and you realize they're an alt of someone you already blocked....

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[–] fizzle@quokk.au 2 points 2 months ago

Why does songs from non-English countries have random English words?

Because most of the audience for non-English songs, particularly younger audiences, are bilingual (or multilingual) and likely speaks English better than you do.

Can you imagine if English songs randomly have Chinese words?

Yeah, that would be unusual, English speaking audiences generally don't speak Chinese.

[–] vrek@programming.dev 2 points 2 months ago

It's not Chinese but caliope mori does this alot with Japanese. A lot of it is pop rap and she is a ytuber so it may not be your style. She's incredibly talented though, she can do multiple simultaneous rhyme schemes while jumping between the two languages.

[–] BlackLaZoR@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

That strongly depends on culture. In poland this doesn't happen at all. On the other side, in Japanese works I've seen not only English words included, but completely fake languages (Nier Automata Ost) or pseudo languages faking Latin or English (Madoka Ost, Hellsing TV intro)

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 months ago

Styx would like a word.

[–] LodeMike@lemmy.today 1 points 2 months ago

More people speak English than any other language

[–] early_riser@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

🎶Come on yaah 我剛才放屁了!

[–] mrdown@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

There is no pure languages anymore. All languages borrow from each other. The tunisian dialect is full of french words

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