I've had this happen before. Whatever you do, don't go down to Georgia, worst mistake of my life
Do this sometimes with movies. What she say? No fucking clue! But I knew it was facts 💯
This works with movies, though. Star Wars is often held up as a movie where the dialogue is totally irrelevant. As long as you've got the soundtrack everyone can figure out the details.
except for leia being his sister. and Vader being his father. you'll walk away with a very different impression just from actions, facial expressions, and music. lol.
It can work for movies sometimes since it isn't all text. Visual language and tone of voice and whatever can get you most of the way there.
These are the words of an extraordinarily powerful reader.
Seriously though, even with a very good translator, you can't get the full experience that you would actually reading the native language. Learning new languages is an extremely cool thing to do if you have the ability to do so
I'm not convinced that learning another language is necessarily better than a translation. Especially if a translator has studied the culture, history, and the author. For poetry or anything with a rhythm, i totally get, but just speaking another language isn't going to get me much more than a translation I don't think.
I mean there are certainly things from my native language that don't have a sufficient translation into English or many other languages, but the issue is unless you grew up with the language I don't think a non-native speaker will have any more appreciation than through a translation. For certain words and phrases you just need an emotional bond to them, and I don't think that can be learned through study necessarily.
For poetry or anything with a rhythm, i totally get
That's the thing though, most literature uses clever writing, jokes, and phrases that don't have a 1:1 translation. A good translator can theoretically make something equally good, but they can't make it the same. Depending on how much you care about the meaning/feeling of the original work, that can be really important.
That’s the thing though, most literature uses clever writing, jokes, and phrases that don’t have a 1:1 translation
As i said, I don't think simply speaking another language gives you access to these things that don't have a 1:1 translation. Being immersed in the culture does, having grown up with the language and forming an emotional bond to certain phrases distinct to the language does. If you learn the language as a non-native speaker I think for the most part the best you can do is come up with the closest meaning, but not the original intent.
just speaking another language isn’t going to get me much more than a translation I don’t think
??? If the translator were as good a writer as the original author, theyd be a writer, not a translator
And if I were as good at understanding foreign literature as a translator, I'd be a translator .
yeah :kermit-pain:
It sucks knowing enough to have a feel for what you're missing but not enough to really enjoy it. I'll get there thoI did French Immersion so that's like a solid 13 years of French study from age 5 on, I still couldn't call myself fully fluent but within a month of being in a majority French place i totally would be and learning it in school meant I learned the more technical aspects which combined with the grammar and shit for English means I can do alright enough reading Italian and Spanish as well. Not quite novel reading but I can do road signs and probably children's books level. If you get two languages based on the route under your belt you start to see the formula for all of them under that route.
I tried reading Trainspotting but couldnt read mire than a few pages because it was written in a strange language that I think is scottish
Shit if you think that's bad, try James Kelman's A Disaffection. Entirely steam-of-consciousness demotic Glaswegian.
Actually he'd be a tight option for book club, @marxisthayaca remind me to pitch it sometime. (edit actually I was thinking of How Late It Was, How Late)
Yeah I read prequel and sequel too, and you kind of have to read it phonetically then simulate a person with a Leith/Edinburgh accent saying it in your head
Don't claim to know English unless you can read Beowulf in its original text.
:geordi-no: proton
:geordi-yes: crash to dekstop, assume that is the universal intended experience and agree with all the praise anyway
Counterpoint: Translating the Communist Manifesto was better than forcing a bunch of Chinese people learn German while their country was being occupied by reactionary forces in the 1920s
listen, unironically a lotta translation loses meaning. reason you can't get a dub is its another layer of mistakes on top of the subtitle mistakes
