The Things People Say...

I was sitting at a little cafe yesterday, having something to eat, and I overheard a Bulgarian word, "супер" (pronounced "super" -- it means just what you think), which I have heard maybe 500 times in the 5 or 6 days I have been here. A couple were looking for a table, and when they found the perfect one, the girl said, "Super!" This seems to be just about the only thing Bulgarians ever say to each other. I remember in Greece, too, there was a word that seemed to be a staple. Οραία (oh-reh-ah), which means "lovely", or "beautiful." Someone brings you food. Οραία. You look at a photo. Οραία. Good news? Οραία. Everything. The Greeks love to use that word. Maybe every language has these words that people are just dying to say. I wonder what the most commonly spoken word is in English? Well, I know what it is in American English. It's that incredibly annoying speech-filler, "like." People use it to dog-paddle their way from word to word, and sometimes will even start a sentence with it, as if they need something to get them going. It has no meaning. Pardon my conjecture, but it would seem that:

• Greeks are quite fond of beauty
• Bulgarians think that everything is super
• Americans are obsessed with the meaningless.