Untranslatable love

As some of you may already know, in a past life I lived in a few countries and learned a few languages. One of the greatest benefits of that patchwork of experiences has to do with the mind-blowing variety of concepts for which I could not find one-word translations. The lexical area of feelings is particularly complicated. Different cultures, it seems, categorize romance (for instance) in so many different ways that it becomes tempting to even question whether different societies experience the same feelings. The author of this academic article published in 2015 claims to have an answer to that question:

Love is a universal emotion experienced by a majority of people, in various historical eras, and in all the world’s cultures, but manifests itself in different ways because culture has an impact on people’s conceptions of love and the way they feel, think, and behave in romantic relationships.

In my experience, languages offer a glimpse into those subtle differences. In German, for example, there are two ways of declaring your love for someone: Ich liebe dich and Ich habe dich lieb. Considering the striking similarities in those two expressions, it comes as no surprise that both should be customarily translated as I love you. Yet, any native German speaker will tell you that there is a significant difference in those two kinds of love. Analogous problems arise whenever a learner delves into the intricacies of lexical taxonomy regarding other semantic areas. Whether we like it or not, languages simply classify reality in similar but not quite identical ways.

I have chosen to discuss the topic of love because it is the vocabulary area that my C1.1 students are learning. Remember? It's part of the second unit ("Relationships"). So far as I can remember, we looked into all kinds of interesting words: hero-worship, crush, mutual love, etc. By the way, could you answer the questions below without using a dictionary?

1. What adjective describes one-sided love?
2. Can you accurately explain the difference between love and infatuation?
3. Are a fling and a love affair the same thing?
4. What are the connotations of ex and old flame?

In case you are wondering, here are the answers:

1. Unrequited
2. Infatuation is superficial and short-lived. Real love is not.
3. A fling is a casual kind of love. An affair usually involves some form of betrayal. Liaison, on the other hand, is always illicit.
4. Both refer to a former lover, but while ex is a neutral word, old flame retains a certain romantic ring to it. In other words, an old flame may be an ex for whom one still has feelings. 

Those of you that don't find this post sickeningly sweet should probably watch this wonderful video, which presents some thought-provoking love-related words from around the globe. I believe some comments are a tad exaggerated. Other have been simplified. If you ask a Portuguese speaker to explain what saudade means they might probably come up with a simpler description than the one presented in the clip. Conversely, the Japanese expression wabi-sabi defines (as far as I can tell) a profound, philosophical concept that goes far beyond the mere idea of romantic love. Anyhow, I do like the video and I think you should watch it if only because it can greatly stimulate your endless love of words.