As a child I never understood what the phrase “lost in translation” meant. I assumed that all languages were in essence, one. What I mean by that is that as a child I assumed all words in the English language could be translated directly to any other language and it would mean the exact same thing. Take the word “privacy” for example. It is a commonly used word in American English but the French translation is a combination of words that alludes to what privacy is. When I googled the word “privacy” a phrase that read “la vie privée” appeared most commonly. However when I typed the same word into a translator application on my smart phone the phrase “Protection des renseignments personnels” appeared. This is the same word which happens to have two different translations to the same language. This concept of words not existing in order languages was something I learned in my late teens. When I became an adult I realized that this has been an issue all my life and I never put much thought to it. My first language was Spanish. It was the language my mother taught me and the only language she spoke. I didn’t learn English until I started grade school at the age of five. As I got older I favored the English language over Spanish as a means of communication to everyone except my other. As I reflect on my childhood I start to think about the times I talked to my mother in Spanish about things I learned in school. My lessons were taught to me in English and at times I had a difficult time translating. English words translated to Spanish didn’t make any sense because of the context it was said in. At times my mother reprimanded me because she feared I was losing my Spanish tongue. I also feared the same thing. I guess we both didn’t know just how tricky languages truly are.
Language is a wonderful tool humans (taken for granted at times) use as a means of communication. It’s created as a necessity among a group of people with common goals under the same environmental circumstances. Studying language further would answer many questions I have. Questions such as “why don’t languages have the same words?, How does language evolve? And how often? Who sets the standards for proper languages? And are similar sounding languages easier to learn?”
The article “does your language shape how you think?” was very interesting to say the least. Exploring the views of Benjamin Lee Whorf was intriguing as well. I think he presented a great argument and I respect his passion. Although most of his theories were proven wrong it’s always great to raise questions that pave the way for studies to be conducted. Most of the article I took as completely informative.
