Caring
- Empathy, Caring, Importance, Defensiveness and Responsibility
- People Who Aren't Cared About Don't Care
- Caring and Control - For Parents
- It Doesn't Matter - Feeling Uncared About
An interesting cultural note is that in Spanish they don't have a word for "caring". In my four years of living in South America I never found anyone who could translate the expression "to care" about someone. If they wanted to say "I don't care", they would say, "No me importa". Obviously, this means more literally, "It isn't important to me."
They have another translation which means "to take care of". That is cuidar. So you might say to someone, "Take care of yourself" by saying "Cuidate". Or if you wanted to say "My mother takes care of me" you would say "mi madre me cuida". But this is more like she protects me or keeps me safe. It still is not the same as the English expression to care about or to care for someone.
(In Part 2 of this 3 part article, I discuss the difference between being important to someone and caring about them.)
--
S. Hein
Feb 6, 2010
Montenegro
Note: If you are familiar with other languages, please write to us on this topic.