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It is estimated that three-fourths of the world's children go to bed every night not knowing what cringe is.
A teenager from Luxembourg City has opted to forego a beach holiday in a resort this summer in order to help out less fortunate children who cannot understand what cringe is, let alone use the term correctly.
Sophie Roude, a 15-year-old lycée student, came up with the idea last summer while she and her parents were taking a tour bus through an impoverished village in a developing country.
“When our driver stopped so that we could take photos of the beautiful landscape, some local boys ran up to the bus to sell us fruit and trinkets,” she said. “My dad asked one of them to pose for a photo.”
“I was like, Dad, that’s cringe,” she added. “The boy turned to me and said, ‘I do not know this word. Please, help me. Help us all.’”
It struck Roude that if the boy truly did not understand what cringe meant, his friends and classmates probably didn’t either.
“Imagine not even having a word to connote the social discomfort you feel in otherwise normal encounters and situations simply because you are a self-conscious teen who has yet to develop a firm sense of self,” she said. “How utterly tragic.”
That night in her family’s cozy bungalow, Roude made a plan to help the village children. This summer, she and some friends will return to give lessons on the meaning of cringe.
“Shopping, not cringe,” said Roude’s friend Ana Fonseca during a recent practice lesson. “Shopping with your parents, a little cringe. Shopping with your parents and seeing someone you know, that’s super cringe.”
“Or when your parents dance, sing, show enthusiasm, have hobbies, let loose, laugh in public, smile for no reason, or strike up conversations with strangers,” Roude said. “That’s also cringe.”
“And there’s so much we can teach these deprived kids about cringe in school,” Fonseca added. “Like when you have to give a presentation, your teacher tries to make a joke, you have to use the toilets, you drop something, or when you cough, sneeze, or need to blow your nose.”
“So cringe,” Roude agreed.
Roude says that if her summer mission succeeds, she will try to spread the meaning of cringe to young people all over the world.
“Or perhaps not, because now that I think of it, committing your time and energy to altruistic causes is cringe.”
