Lost in Translation

Lost in Translation "China further and further, disappearing behind clouds. Below is ocean. I from desert town. Is the first time in my life I see sea. It look like a dream." (4) As I mentioned in class, I spent time in Southeastern Asia two summers ago, and spent a few weeks teaching English in Thailand in elementary schools, as well as high schools. Obviously, in an attempt to not come off as ignorant, I have to clarify that I understand that Chinese and Thai are two very, very different languages, and that one cannot compare the learning experience of a Chinese and a Thai as being "identical" when it comes to English. However, there definitely are similarities between the two, which I can recognize through the similarities between Z's mistakes when speaking English and the mistakes of the kids I taught. One of her biggest troubles, similar to the Thai kids, are verb tenses. Many of the tenses we use simply don't exist in Asian languages, or are used somewhat differently. For example, in the above quote, "it look like" instead of "it looks like." This error, quite simply, comes from the irregular nature of English verbs. Additionally, the Subject-Verb-Object pattern in English does not fully follow through into these Asian languages, often making sentences incomplete or containing incorrect word order, such as "Is the first time in my life I see sea" instead of "It is the first time in my life that I'm seeing the sea." After reading Xiaolu Guo's "A Concise Chinese - English Dictionary for Lovers," as well as spending time teaching English, I came to understand that speakers of these Asian languages often have hard times assimilating into Western culture (not just "English" or "American") because of their inabilities to speak and understand Romantic or Germanic Languages. Because the patterns of forming English sentences are vastly different than patterns in Chinese or Thai, it's safe to say that we probably think differently. (As a side note, NYU is offering a course studying the relationships between a country's language (word use, sentence pattern, etc.) and it's politics, culture, and so on). Thus, Chinese immigrants often stay sheltered by living in areas such as a "China Town." On one hand, this is a gross generalization; on the other, you don't see "French Town" or "German Town" quite so often. This made me think about whether or not it's truly possible to become completely comfortable in a country that does not speak your mother tongue. Obviously, it's possible for one to "assimilate" and learn a language, but can one ever be as comfortable in a country where they did not spend their developmental years (early childhood)? While I'm tempted to say no, I can speak once again from personal experience in telling that my mother, who moved to the United States from Sweden at the age of 30, is now far more comfortable speaking English than Swedish, and has little (if any) accent. Of course, she still prefers Swedish food, music, movies, etc. because these are the things that she grew up with. All in all, this book brought up a lot of good questions that I'm still working on figuring out, and will have to continue working on in years to come, I'm sure.