Found in Translation: Showing Off Your "Pretoogjes"

There's a certain twinkle in our eyes when we laugh at a good joke or a cleverly pulled prank. It’s a special glint that reveals your inner mischief, amusement, and good spirit — a dopamine-filled moment of pure bliss! And that elusive little glint is what the the Dutch would call, pretoogjes.

According to TedTalk, pretoogjes literally refers to “fun eyes”, meaning “the eyes of a chuckling person who is up to some mischief”. What a simple, yet meaningful word we can all so easily relate to!

Unlike the “smize” — where your eyes do the smiling by looking — pretoogjes has nothing to do with modeling or trying to look fierce for a fashion magazine cover. Pretoogjes refers to the look when your eyes wrinkle into concaves and an uncontrolled, gummy smile lifts your cheeks. Your eyes are indeed smiling but in an entirely different way — your hearty laughter is an indication of the heady happiness you feel. Sometimes you might lose your composure as your eyes narrow into emoji-like curves...

To put it simply, pretoogjes means you are —however momentarily — extraordinarily happy. Feel the fun through these winning smiles from our happy-go-lucky Lomographic Community!

2018-05-15 #culture #found-in-translation #pretoogjes