Literally

An article recently published in slate.com brought up how Merriam-Webster has recently updated the definition of the word "literally" to mean what many people consider to be its exact opposite: that is, "in effect" or "virtually." I know the alleged misuse of the word "literally" is something that bothers a lot of people, but I fully welcome Merriam-Webster's decision. Dictionaries are, after all, descriptive in nature; that is, they describe the way words are actually used as opposed to providing arbitrary words for the so-called correct usage of words.

 Mass Hysteria

But won't that eventually lead to absolute chaos and mass hysteria if we don't have some kind of rules governing the correct usage of words? After all, what if we all suddenly decided to use a word very differently than how it was used in the past? The problem is, this has happened before, and no one really seems to mind. Our word "silly" used to mean "blessed" or "innocent." When moral standards changed, holding on to older standards was considered "silly," and eventually the word took on a more negative connotation, meaning foolish. Our language has been changing for its entire existence without falling into the absolute chaos described above.

Then surely there must be some problem with "literally" now meaning the exact opposite of its literal meaning. Not so, actually. There is a certain class of words called autoantonyms (in fact, I wrote a blog post about them not too long ago).

Perhaps most importantly, I would argue that when people use the word "literally" when they mean "figuratively" they are, in fact, not using it incorrectly. At least not in the way people usually think. Merriam-Webster describe the usage thus:

It has been frequently criticized as a misuse. Instead, the use is pure hyperbole intended to gain emphasis.

That's right: hyperbole, or exaggeration. If I were to say a sentence like, "When I heard they added a new definition of 'literally' to the dictionary, I literally died," no one seems to have a problem with the fact that I said I died. No one says, "That's not true. You're not dead," or "That's not what the word 'died' means. You're misusing it." We're all okay with it because we all use hyperbole to express emotion and make our language more interesting. But therein lies my one complaint with the usage: saying that you died is already hyperbole. Putting the word "literally" in front doesn't add anything. It's tautology. I think that's why I never use the word "literally" in this sense anyway. If I simply say, "I died when I heard the news," it's sufficient.

Also, saying something like "When I heard the news, I figuratively died" sounds incredibly stupid.

On learning vocabulary

Is language basically grammar that you fill with vocabulary or is it vocabulary that is supported by grammar? Most of the time, language is taught the first way with a large emphasis on grammar despite the fact that the later is more accurate. If you think about it, you can form ungrammatical sentences that are still perfectly understandable (e.g., "I go store"). You can also form grammatically correct sentences that don't mean anything (a famous example being the sentence proposed by the famous linguist Noam Chomsky, "Green colorless thoughts sleep furiously.") In learning a language, you would benefit from putting your emphasis on learning vocabulary first.

Unfortunately, most of the time when vocabulary is taught, it is taught incorrectly. For example, vocabulary is often taught using themed lists (e.g., animals, food, colors). This is inefficient because when you learn vocabulary your brain is making a connection between the new vocabulary word and a concept. If all of the concepts you are learning are similar (e.g., apple, orange, pear), then your brain will have a harder time keeping track of them. This is especially true when learning opposites. At first your brain will store ideas like "hot" and "cold" in the same place. You'll remember that they both have something to do with temperature, but you'll get which is which confused. Overall, it is better when learning vocabulary to learn as disparate of ideas as possible at a time.

The French linguist Saussure developed the concept of signified-signifier; that is, every vocabulary term consists of a signified (the concept which it represents) and the signifier (the arbitrary sounds and letter combinations used to represent the signified). Perhaps a simpler way to think of this when it comes to vocabulary is the MEANING of the word and the FORM of the word. Generally, when learning a new vocabulary word one of the first things you do is look its meaning up in the dictionary. This is a mistake because it causes you to neglect learning the other part of the word: the signifier. Anyone who has learned a language has probably already experienced this where they know they've learned a word and maybe remember the first letter or two, but they don't remember the word. This is because they have not focused on learning the form first.

What I would recommend is that when you come across a word you don't know, resist the urge to look it up immediately. Instead, take some time to familiarize yourself with it. So let's say you were learning Spanish and came across a word like "esmero," (which I found in a song lyric for Seru Giran's "A los jovenes de ayer"). First learn how to spell it and pronounce it. Feel comfortable with it. Then go ahead and look it up. I am confident if you do it this way, developing the signifier before the signified, that it will stick in your head better, and you'll develop vocabulary faster.

The final step is to focus on learning the USAGE of the word by doing what language teachers call "chunking." That is, when we speak we generally use preset chunks of words instead of organizing individual vocabulary items in novel ways. Take the word "grocery" for instance. On its own, this word is pretty useless. If you were learning this in English, you'd probably need to know the chunks "grocery store,"  "go to the grocery store," and "buy groceries" to get any use out of it. What this means is that after you have learned the form and meaning of a word, you last need to focus on the usage of it. Ask yourself what words you will need to know in order to use this new word and add them to your vocabulary list. Practice using them orally and in writing. This will also, of course, require you to know some grammar at this point to support the vocabulary.

Failed Attempts at Teaching About Racism

When moving to a new culture, there is bound to be some culture clash; however, after time you grow accustomed to most of the new culture and sometimes even learn to appreciate some of the differences. For instance, now that I'm back in America I can't stand how obsequious waiters are in restaurants, and I still find it odd that that the cashier at the grocery store is the one that weighs my produce. There are some things though that I could never get used to, in fact, I don't believe I ever should get used to. I feel fairly confident to say that when teaching abroad, at some point every teacher is going to hear a student say something horribly racist. I don't want to repeat any of what I heard here (since I don't believe most of it is worthy of being reprinted), but as an example I'll say that when I was teaching in Qatar I gave an assignment where the students had to write about someone they thought was a great leader. The most popular choice was to write about Sheikha Mozah. The second most popular was Hitler.

And I'd like to thank...

As a young, naive high school teacher in Hungary, I thought it would be good to have a lesson with students about the antisemitic and anti-Roma comments I occasionally heard. The class I was teaching was on US culture, and we had been talking about Martin Luther King, Jr. I felt this was a good time to ask about if they had seen any examples of racism in their lives. Their answers indicated that they had, but the examples they gave all had to do with acts of violence, so I asked if words could be considered racist. For instance, I asked, have any of you told or heard a joke that made fun of Jews or Gypsies? This was definitely the turning point where the lesson started to get uncomfortable and many of the students went on the defense. I will never forget how one student responded. She said that in her experience, every single Gypsy she had ever seen fit the stereotype. Until she met one who didn't, she would hold on to that belief.

I look back now and can't believe how overbearing I was being. I can only imagine the reaction if a foreigner had come to my high school when I was a teenager and accused us of being racist. More so, it has occurred to me that this wasn't my country and this wasn't my battle. It's easy enough for me as an American to pontificate about equality and antisemitism in the Arab-Israeli conflict because it's not my homeland that has been taken away. Compared to my Palestinian students, I don't really see why I deserved to have any place in the conversation.

Gyöngyi Magó in class

I recently learned about a documentary titled There Was Once (in Hungarian Egyszer Volt), which is about a history teacher named Gyöngyi Magó in Kalocsa, Hungary, a small town famous for its paprika and embroidery. In researching about the holocaust, she discovered her own small town's role in the holocaust, began to seek out some of the survivors, and to teach her students about it. In some ways I feel like she could do this and I couldn't because it is her town and her country, and she has every right to be a part of the conversation.

I have looked all over the internet, and I can't find a copy of this film for sale. The film's website has some clips and a trailer, but that's all I've been able to find. The US State Department will be screening the film in Washington, DC on December 10th to commemorate Human Rights Day. If you're in the area, I recommend checking it out because there is probably no other way to see this film. 

Not all of my attempts at teaching about racism were unsuccessful. One semester I invited students to help generate essay topics, and several wanted to write about racism. At this point I had learned to take a little extra care with this issue, so the prompt I gave them was, "Why do people who hold racist beliefs think they are not racist?" I liked this prompt because it wasn't directly accusing anyone of anything, yet it still comes to a fairly universal truth. I don't think anyone believes they are racist, even people who have really strong racist beliefs. They somehow rationalize it in their mind.

I think this essay prompt worked better than the class discussion I tried to have before for two reasons. First, it was all in writing. Students are going to be more inclined to be honest if they don't have to say what they think in front of the whole class. The other reason is that it allowed for more critical thinking because I wasn't leading the discussion with a particular endpoint in mind. I think if I were to broach this topic in the future it would be more about exploring racism in general or possibly having a debate and allowing the students to come to their own conclusions.

And with that in mind, I hope no one comes to any quick conclusions about people in Hungary or Qatar based simply on this short blog post. As with people anywhere in the world, the majority are absolutely wonderful, but they face their own unique challenges and have their own unique cultural perspectives. I think I have come to learn that judging someone to be a racist can be just as unproductive as judging someone by their race or ethnicity. When we begin to talk about race and racial integration, we should realize that these are incredibly complex and nuanced issues without simple black and white answers (just look at the Guardian's section on Roma, Gypsies, and Travelers for some of these complexities).

Happy Holidays

I have no problem with the phrase "Happy Holidays." After all, in the month of December Christians may be celebrating 4 Advent Sundays, St. Nicholas Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, up to 12 days of Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years Eve, New Years Day, and Epiphany. Saying all of those could be quite cumbersome as a greeting, so I feel that "Happy Holidays" is an efficient form of oral shorthand, though essentially just "Have a Nice Day" in the month of December.

What I do have a problem with is when people claim that the phrase "Happy Holidays" is in some way culturally sensitive. I might lose some people here, but I argue that it isn't. The culturally sensitive argument goes something like this: I don't know which holiday you're going to celebrate this December, so I'm just going to say "Happy Holidays"--a generic phrase--because I don't want to be guilty of wishing you a happy [insert holiday] when in fact you won't be celebrating said holiday. My problem is that I don't see how using a generic phrase can be culturally sensitive because different cultures are proud of what makes them different. Treating a cultural celebration generically ignores those differences.

Political correctness often takes two forms. The first is where we call people what they want to be called. This is a type of being PC that I think most people agree with. Minorities in the United States, African Americans, LGBT, American Indians, Asian Americans, etc., all have words they like to be called and ones they don't. The most culturally sensitive thing to do is call them whatever it is they want. Most Native Americans actually prefer to be called American Indians, but what they'd really like is if you called them by the name of the their tribe. When it comes to saying "Happy Holidays," who is it that we are trying to placate? The first group that comes to mind are Jewish, but do they want to be wished a happy holiday, or would they prefer to be wished a happy Chanukah?

The other form of political correctness is where in order to avoid offending people we treat everyone identically, which is to say generically. I believe this is the kind of political correctness that deservedly gets a bad name. This is why we have elementary school sporting events where both the winners and losers get medals. The form of political correctness I mentioned in the paragraph above acknowledges people's differences, whereas this form ignores them; that is, it is not based on reality. In the real world there are winners and there are losers. Trying to hide this fact is essentially a lie and a disservice. Another example is how a lot of people believe feminism is about trying to make men and women identical. I imagine actual feminists must tire of hearing this, since feminism is about celebrating and empowering women--because men and women are different. Other people claim to be "colorblind" when it comes to race, but Black and White people are different in good ways too. We should be celebrating these cultural differences, not ignoring them. This also obviously goes too far when we take symbols of one of one of those holidays, like say a Christmas tree, and call it a "Holiday tree" even though none of the other December holidays have trees as a symbol. Again, I have to ask who is being placated by this genericness.

When I was given the Chanukah gelt, I had the option to chastize

him and tell him to call it "Holiday gelt." Instead, I just said,

"Thank You."

Moreover, the dean of the school where I work is Jewish, and the other day he handed out Chanukah gelt to everyone. I'm not Jewish, but I wasn't offended by this. In fact, I thought it was very cool that he was essentially inviting us to take part in his culture's celebration. Anyone who has lived in another country or studied a foreign language knows what it feels like to be on the outside of the target culture. Being invited to take part in that culture can be a joyous moment.

 Is this the solution?

So again, I am not against using the phrase "Happy Holidays" because at worst it is a little generic. However, I am also not against holiday greetings that specifically mention Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanzaa, Ramadan every 30 years or so, the Solstice, Festivus, or anything else that might be happening during the month of December. So what is the solution? I don't see why before greeting a complete stranger we can't simply ask something like, "What are you celebrating this month?" and actually get to know them a little before giving them a holiday greeting. After all, aren't the holidays supposed to be a time when people are closer and a little bit kinder? Then if they say Chanukah, wish them a happy Chanukah. If Kwanzaa, then wish them a happy Kwanzaa. If they're celebrating nothing (which some people do), then wish them a good day. Because everyone can always use a good day. 

Obviously it's different though if you're a store (or a blog) and don't have the ability to actually get to know everyone who will be shopping there (or reading your posts). So to my readers I wish you a happy holidays, wherever you are or whatever you're celebrating.

Tabuttantamóonk

Why are some languages taught in schools, but not others?

Something I always find interesting is which languages get taught in schools in different countries. When I was in high school the options were Spanish, French, and German. This made sense to me. Spanish speaking countries were to our south, French-speaking Quebec was to our north, and English and German were related languages. During my senior year they started to offer Japanese. I know that Chinese has become popular as of late too. I reckon that these aren't for geographic purposes, but more because people believe they might be useful in a business setting.

When I moved to Hungary to teach at a high school, I assumed that besides English some of the languages spoken in neighboring countries (in this case German, Slovak, Ukrainian, Romanian, Serbian, Croatian, and Slovenian) would possibly be taught in the schools. German was, and so was French. Finnish is fairly popular there as well, since Hungarian is related to it, but none of the geographically nearby languages were readily taught. I am aware that if you grew up in a town that had historically had a large Slovak population, like say Szarvas, where my great-great grandmother was from, then there are schools that teach Slovak, but if you were from a different town, then the opportunity simply wouldn't be there. I find this a little peculiar, since you would think that knowing the language of a neighboring country could be quite useful in social and business settings.

Of course, back in America I find it a little peculiar that German is still commonly taught, but Dutch isn't. After all, old New York was once New Amsterdam. Also, Dutch is much easier than German. But for whatever reason, there is simply not the demand for it. Where I live has a large Scandinavian background, yet Swedish and Danish aren't a part of any school curriculum that I'm aware of.


Learning Wampanoag for Thanksgiving

 The popular image of the "first" Thanksgiving is full of inaccuracies. 

With it being Thanksgiving time, I also can't help but reflect on the "first" Thanksgiving where the Pilgrims and American Indians from the Massachusett tribe shared a meal together. It's become popular as of late to be critical of portrayals of Europeans' and Indians' interactions from this time period. Take the picture above. The pilgrims didn't actually dress that way, and the Indians are actually dressed like Plains Indians, not like a tribe from New England. It makes about as much sense as if the painting of Washington crossing the Delaware featured everyone dressed as cowboys. Yes, there is criticism, but for many it seems that it doesn't go beyond sharing a few humorous memes on Facebook. 

As a language teacher, I have to ask myself why is it so few people are interested in learning any of the native languages of this country. I imagine many people would respond with how they simply wouldn't get any use out of it. After all, don't most Indians speak English? I've already addressed this issue of language utility in a previous post, and I simply don't buy it. Irish is a popular language for many Americans to learn, and pretty much everyone in Ireland speaks English. I believe that prestige, which has to do with our attitudes toward the speakers of the target language, is a major factor. If we have positive attitudes toward the original inhabitants of this country, it stands to reason that many of us would be interested in their languages and cultures as well. But I fear that we don't actually have a positive attitude toward native cultures, rather we incorrectly believe that we live in a postracist society where such things don't matter. I argue that such things very much do.

So for this Thanksgiving I gave myself the challenge to find five simple words in Massachusett (also called Wampanoag or Natick), the language that would have been spoken at the "first" Thanksgiving: Thanksgiving, potato, turkey, pumpkin, and corn. I am of course aware that none of these items would have been eaten at the "first" Thanksgiving, but I was hoping to use some of what I learned at my Thanksgiving dinner, and we will be serving turkey, not venison or eel.

I did some searching on the Internet to see what I could find. The first thing I found was that the Wampanoag language went extinct in the late 19th century. Let that sink in for a minute while you're preparing your meal today: The language spoken by the Indians at the "first" Thanksgiving died out over a century ago. If you're familiar with the sad history, then you know it wasn't because its speakers died of natural causes.

In 1993 it was revived and there are now roughly 400 people who can speak it as a second language. I found a little bit about the revival project at this website. I also found this dictionary that was written in 1903. I searched around and found that the word for turkey is néyhom and corn is weatchimín. Potato and pumpkin weren't in the dictionary. Thanksgiving is tabuttantamóonk, from tabuttantam, meaning to thank. Try saying that last one out loud and realize that you're speaking a dead man's tongue. It gives me chills.

What about Navajo or other American Indian languages?

I thought I'd try my luck with Navajo since it has the most native speakers of any American Indian language with about 200,000. It is also a language that every American should be grateful for thanks to its being used as a code during World War II. And sure enough, I was able to find a lot more materials to learn that language online. I liked this website quite a bit since it had different games and activities as well as audio clips of the words being pronounced. I couldn't find the names of any of the Thanksgiving foods, though it probably wouldn't have been appropriate since the Navajo are from the Southwest, not New England. Their languages are from two completely different language families (Algonquian in the case of Wompanaog, Athabaskan for Navajo). Trying to tie the Navajo into the "first" Thanksgiving story makes about as much sense as connecting Bulgarians to the signing of the Magna Carta.

One last place I went to look was the blog of the National Museum of the American Indian, which is part of the Smithsonian. Wouldn't you know that the first blog post on it was titled, "Do American Indians celebrate Thanksgiving?" It's written by a member of the Kiowa tribe, so he knows a lot more than I do since I'm just a guy who knows how to Google things. I highly recommend that you read it.

I recognize that my call for European Americans to learn an American Indian language is probably unrealistic, but I can't help but feel that an opportunity was missed when I was in school. When my family was stationed at an Air Force base in Turkey, someone came to our school once a week and taught us a little Turkish. Back here in the States, pretty much everyone learns a little bit of Spanish. Everyone knows uno, dos, tres, but why don't we know the same in any native language? I don't see why we can't all learn a little bit of Wampanoag, Navajo, Cherokee, or whatever the language of the tribe that used to or continues to populate whichever state you currently live in is, especially around days like Columbus Day or Thanksgiving.

Birthdays

I have dropped the ball, not only in maintaining this blog (obviously), but also as linguist. I wished a friend a happy birthday yesterday on Facebook, and her response was as follows:

So weird. Not in another language? Hmphhh. I'll expect a post to your blog regarding the best and worst birthday wishes in Hungarian, Basque, and Bermudan Cantonese in the near future...

Well, I can't say for Basque (since I don't speak it) or Bermudan Cantonese (since I don't think that exists), but I can certainly go over some different birthday customs in the different countries I've lived in.


Hungary

The way to wish someone a happy birthday in Hungary is Boldog születésnapot! Boldog just means happy, születés means birth, and nap means day. It's sometimes shortened to the less cumbersome Boldog szülinapot!

Hungarians will have birthday parties with cake and presents. The other tradition that I recall is someone comes and pulls your ear once for every year you are old (10 years old = 10 ear yanks).


The other thing of note is that they don't sing our version of the Birthday song. Instead, they sing this song, by children's song singer Judit Halász:

The chorus goes:

Boldog, boldog, boldog születésnapot
Kívánjuk, hogy legyen még sok ilyen szép napod,

Which translates to:

Happy, happy, happy birthday
We wish that you will have many other days that are as lovely. 

It is also worth mentioning that you would probably not celebrate your birthday at work or at school. Hungarians get to have birthdays but also névnapok (name days). Every name is assigned a certain day of the year (sometimes more than one, if the name is popular). The daily names are generally published in name calendars or even in the daily newspapers, so pretty much everyone knows them. It is far more common to celebrate this day with colleagues and classmates. You could look yours up here.


Argentina

I don't recall getting invited to lots of parties while living in Argentina. A quick Google search told me they also do the pulling on the earlobe thing. I also remember that like in most of Latin America, a girl's 15th birthday (her quinciñera) is a very big deal. So big in fact, that the South American equivalent of John Hughes made a movie called Dulce Quinciñera on the topic.

That last bit wasn't true, obviously; I'm just trying to fill up space since I genuinely don't know much on the topic. I do know that they sing the birthday melody most Americans would be more familiar with. To wish someone a happy birthday in Spanish, you say ¡Feliz Cumpleaños! The song is a little bit different and uses the phrase ¡Qué los cumplas feliz!, though sometimes they'll also sing Cumpleaños feliz to the same melody as well.


Qatar

Someone will have to correct me if I'm wrong, but Qataris generally do not celebrate birthdays. With that said, it's a very multicultural nation, so it really depends on where you came from originally and what customs you brought with you. I did a quick Google search just for "birthdays in Qatar,"  and I wasn't surprised to find most of the results were expatriate forums where someone was planning a birthday party for their child.

So how did I do? Did I get most of this right, or is anything missing? And what about any of you? Do you know of any birthday traditions in other countries that are worth sharing? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Horror in Any Language

To help you celebrate Halloween a bit better, I've compiled a list of foreign films that are either horror or just downright creepy. I asked my brother (who watches a lot more films than I do) to help me come up with this, and his blurbs are listed with his initials: BS (as opposed to mine, which are DS). This list is by no means meant to be exhaustive, but I think you'll find a lot to choose from here.

Some of these are silent films, and it would be a shame to leave them off the list just because there is no spoken foreign dialogue. Plus, if you can find a copy of any of these from the original country, then you should be able to read the intertitles in the target language. Many of these are available from the Criterion Collection on DVD (or Hulu). A good number of them are available on YouTube as well, if you look hard enough.

Figure de Cire (The Man with Wax Faces)
Director: Maurice Tourneur
Country: France, Language: Silent, Run time: 11 min, Year: 1914.

A quick tour through a wax museum ends badly. The available print is so damaged that the warped quality of the film seems to constantly invade the scene with ghosts from another dimension. BS


Умирающий лебедь (The Dying Swan)
Director: Yevgeni Bauer

Country: Russia, Language: Silent, Run time: 49 min, Year: 1917.

Ballerina makes tragic decision to join crazy, death-obsessed director's theater troupe. BS


Das Cabinet des Dr. Caligari (The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari)
Director: Robert Wiene
Country: Germany, Language: Silent, Run time: 67 min, Year: 1920

For me, this film is all about the arresting expressionist visuals, but it is also about a murderous somnambulist, the doctor that pulls his strings, and madness. DS


Körkarlen (The Phantom Carriage)
Director: Victor Sjöström
Country: Sweden, Language: Silent, Run time: 93 min, Year: 1921

Last man to die during the year automatically has to take over the role of grim reaper for the next one. You would think that upon hearing this on New Year's Eve, the film's protagonist would try really hard not to die that day. Only then the movie would only be five minutes long. BS


Häxen (Häxen: Witchcraft Through the Ages)
Director: Benjamin Christensen
Country: Sweden, Language: Silent, Run time: 87 min, Year: 1922

A bizarre amalgam of history lesson, modern parable, and special effects extravaganza, Häxan frightens with vivid imagery as it presents its thesis on witchcraft, superstitions, and the occult through slideshow, visual essay, and spirited reenactments, drawing parallels with then (and often now) relevant social issues and pleading the case for reason in the face of inexplicable phenomena. BS


Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauens (Nosferatu, a Symphony of Horror)
Director: F.W. Murnau
Country: Germany, Language: Silent, Run time: 81 min, Year: 1922

An unauthorized German-remake of Dracula with some all around frightening visuals. Plus, Western Slovakia stands in for Transylvania, with the Orava castle being used as Count Orlak's castle. DS


狂った一頁 (A Page of Madness)
Director: Teinosuke Kinugasa
Country: Japan, Language: Silent, Run time: 70 min, Year: 1926

One of the earliest known surviving Japanese films, a visual approximation of the mind of a madman. BS


La Chute de la Maison Usher (The Fall of the House of Usher) Director: Jean Epstein
Country: France, Language: Silent, Run time: 63 min, Year: 1928 

This version of the Edgar Allan Poe tale (the too loose adaptation of which prompted Luis Buñuel to quit as assistant director) is a slow-burning visual feast of spectral illusions and creepy creakings at the titular house of Usher, artfully evoking the trauma of watching a wife slip away into dementia and death, and all culminating in a transcendental, impressionistic maelstrom of fog, lights, and horror. BS


Vampyr 
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Germany, Language: German, but mostly intertitles, Run time: 75 min, Year: 1932

For having nominally created one of the great enduring classics of vampire lore, Dreyer seems less concerned with the mythology surrounding those rascally creatures of the night than with sustaining a general sense of dread that could easily be transplanted to a film devoted to any other class of ghoul. In fact, the subtitle to Murnau's Nosferatu may have been more apt here: A Symphony of Horror. BS


Une Nuit sur le Mont Chauve (Night on Bald Mountain)
Director: Alexander Alexeieff & Claire Parker
Country: France, Language: None, Run time: 8 min, Year: 1933

A pinscreen animation set to Mussorgsky's piece of the same name. BS


Der Student von Prag (The Student of Prague)
Director: Arthur Robison
Country: Germany, Language: German, Run time: 87 min, Year: 1935

Man comes to regret not having agreed to more precise terms in his deal with the devil. I love this movie so much. BS


Vredens Dag (Day of Wrath)
Director: Carl Theodor Dreyer
Country: Denmark, Language: Danish, Run time: 110 min, Year: 1943

In a small town in Denmark where accusations of witchcraft run rampant, an older pastor marries a young woman in exchange for not burning her mother at the stake. In true Dreyer fashion, the ending is as chilling as it is ambiguous. DS

Spalovač Mrtvol (The Cremator)
Director: Juraj Herz
Country: Czechoslovakia, Language: Czech, Run time: 95 min, Year: 1969

After the Nazis have occupied his Czech homeland, a smalltime funeral director is all too eager to prove to them his mettle. You seriously need to watch this movie right now. (There is a little adult content.) Also recommended is the same director's Morgiana. Also, Valerie and Her Week of Wonders is supposed to be a great Czech vampire film, though I haven't seen it yet. BS

La Femme qui se poudre (The Woman Who Powders Herself)
Director: Patrick Bokanowski

Country: France, Language: None, Run time: 18 min, Year: 1972

A catalogue of vaguely creepy Lynchian visuals, including, yes, a woman powdering herself. BS

La Cabina (The Telephone Box)
Director: Antonio Mercero
Country: Spain, Language: Spanish, Run time: 35 min, Year: 1972

Man gets trapped in phone booth, learns patience, is not rewarded for this. BS


Suspiria
Director: Dario Argento
Country: Italy, Language: English with some German and Russian, Run time: 92 min, Year: 1977

This one is technically a cheat since the movie is mostly in English. I'm allowing it though because Italian films back then dubbed all their dialogue anyway for the target market, even in English, so if you bought a copy of the Italian version, it would be just about the same, with the same overpowering prog-rock soundtrack to boot. Plus it features traveling to Europe to study, which seems fitting for this blog. The only thing is, the school in Suspiria also specializes in the occult. As such I imagine this incredibly gory film would probably be a more accurate representation of what Hogwarts would actually be like. DS


La Ville des Pirates (City of Pirates)
Director: Raul Ruiz
Country: France/ Portugal, Language: French, Run time: 111 min, Year: 1983

May or may not be just a dream that I had once, with actually little to no pirates. Assuming it exists, you seriously need to watch this movie right now. BS

Riget (The Kingdom)
Director: Lars von Trier
Country: Denmark, Language: Danish, Year: 1994 

This finally converted me over to von Trier. Delicious hospital-set horror comedy, somewhat episodic like Twin Peaks. BS

Outer Space 
Director: Peter Tscherkassky
Country: Austria, Run time: 10 min, Year: 2000

A slasher film where the victim is the film stock. BS

Låt den rätte komma in (Let the Right One In)
Director: Tomas Alfredson
Country: Sweden, Language: Swedish, Run time: 115 min, Year: 2008

This film features a young human and vampire following in love. One of the characters is a pale, lifeless looking female. Basically, what I'm trying to say is if you loved Twilight, I am going to force you to watch this movie. DS

Martyrs
Director: Pascal Laugier
Country: France, Language: French, Run time: 99 min, Year: 2008

My friend Alissa recommended this for me, but I haven't been able to see it yet. From what I can tell it is an incredibly bloody revenge horror thriller.

Katalin Varga
Director: Peter Strickland
Country: Romania, Languages: Hungarian and Romanian, Run time: 82 min, Year: 2009

More of a revenge thriller than a horror film, though the ending is quite horrific. Also, it still takes place in Transylvania, which is enough to earn it a spot on this list. DS

So that's our list. What are your thoughts? Is there anything we missed? Have you seen any of these? What's your opinion? Feel free to leave a comment, if you have.