Learning by Translating

When the English tongue we speak
Why is break not rhymed with weak?
Won’t you tell me why it’s true
We say sew, but also few?
And the maker of a verse
Cannot rhyme his horse with worse?
Beard is not the same as heard,
Cord is different from word,
Cow is cow, low is low,
Shoe is never rhymed with foe.
Think of hose and dose and lose,
And think of goose and yet of choose,
Think of comb and tomb and bomb,
Doll and roll and home and some.
And since pay is rhymed with say,
Why not paid with said, I pray?
Think of blood and food and good;
Mould is not pronounced like could.
Why is done, but gone and lone -
Is there any reason known?
To sum it up, it seems to me
That sounds and letters don’t agree.

Found here.

In un post del suo blog Transtextuel, C. P., traduttrice dall’italiano al francese, ha parlato del fascino che possono suscitare parole di una lingua alle orecchie di coloro che non la parlano come lingua madre (e che ne sono appassionati). Lei narra un episodio in cui le è capitato di ascoltare alcuni parlanti di madrelingua italiana e le sensazioni che ha provato. Questo episodio le ha fornito uno spunto per una riflessione sulle lingue, che affascinano chi decide di impararle sin dal primo momento. Trovo questo suo articolo interessante perché, a parte il fatto che si parla dell’italiano dal punto di vista di un parlante straniero, non posso far altro che concordare ciò che C. P. ha scritto solo che io, essendo di madrelingua italiana, provo le stesse identiche cose con le lingue che studio, specialmente con l’inglese.

Ecco la mia traduzione del post che C. P. ha scritto: “Rêverie d’une traducteuse : la mélodie des langues“.

Fantasticherie di una traduttora: la melodia delle lingue

Alcuni mesi fa mi trovavo in presenza di italiani che conversavano tranquillamente tra loro mentre ero in pausa. Raccoglievo alcuni spezzoni della conversazione. Una ragazza stava raccontando un aneddoto qualunque, quando il mio interesse si spostò dal suo discorso al suo timbro di voce caldo, vibrante, acuto.

Da un secondo all’altro, non so come, mi sono staccata dalle mie conoscenze linguistiche, estasiata dall’ascolto di questa lingua che amo tanto per la sua musica, il suo ritmo, la sua estensione, attraverso quella voce deliziosa. Così, mi sono lasciata cullare dal canto dell’italiano senza afferrarne le parole, esultando per essere tornata a quel piacere fondamentale: il suono della lingua, spogliata dai significati. Ero stupita.

Imparando di più e facendo più pratica, questo si verifica più raramente. Potrei distaccarmi dall’inglese fino a dimenticarne il senso? Non so come il francese risuoni alle orecchie degli stranieri, probabilmente non lo saprò mai, questa mia curiosità resterà insoddisfatta. A volte questo piccolo rammarico s’insinua nella mia mente, quando le risorse multimediali, le chiacchiere con dei conoscenti o le voci che sento per strada danno questa gioia ai miei timpani: il fascino che risiede nella melodia delle parole incomprese.

Anche altri traduttori hanno queste fantasie?

————————————————————————————————————————

Questo, invece, il mio commento al suo post (tradotto in italiano):

“Sono talmente abituata al suono della mia lingua madre che sono molto contenta quando ho l’occasione di sentire qualcuno parlare una lingua diversa dalla mia (e alla TV o alla radio non è la stessa cosa)! Talvolta sono tentata a partecipare alla conversazione, ma non lo faccio spesso… dipende dalla situazione.

Quando ho cominciato a studiare l’inglese, pensavo che le parole inglesi avessero un certo fascino. Avevo voglia di imparare più parole possibile e amavo leggere i dialoghi che erano sul mio libro! Ero talmente curiosa che tentavo di leggere anche i dialoghi che non avevo ancora studiato”.

4. Lexibar

Lexibar is a very useful tool that lets you add special characters to a text written in another language. It is a good alternative to using keyboard shortcuts (e.g. ALT + 0228 for the German ä, as in Läufer) or the Windows Character Map because it is language-specific. There would be no need to learn shortcuts by heart, and sometimes using the Character Map may be a little more “time-consuming” because you have to find the special character you want to insert among many others.

According to Lexicool.com:

Lexibar is a small toolbar which gives rapid access to special characters not always available on your keyboard.

Once you have installed lexibar, either click on the special characters to insert them directly into your word processor or drag and drop them (using the left-hand mouse button). If these methods do not function, you can copy the characters to the clipboard by double-clicking on them, then paste them into your document.

Lexibar is available, free of charge, in the following languages: Catalan, Czech, Croatian, Danish, Esperanto, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Icelandic, Italian, Latin, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish. You can download Lexibar here.

(per i miei lettori italiani: Stefano, autore del blog “trovareXcredere” ha scritto un’ottima recensione di questa utility con un piccolo “tutorial” in italiano. Il link è questo —> http://trovarepercredere.blogspot.com/2009/12/lexibar-utility-gratuita-per-accedere.html)

1. I speak two languages (Italian and English) fluently, and would like to become more fluent in French (it is more of a “passive” language to me… if you study interpreting, you know what I mean).
2. I wanted to learn Japanese when I was in high school.
3. I actually started learning foreign languages (English and French) when I started middle school, but I already knew how to count from 1 to 10 and some words and phrases in English (my Dad taught me). I have a short film of mine when I was 4, in which I translate cartoon character names, some words and phrases (like “How old are you?” and “What time is it?”) from Italian into English!
4. I attended a high school mostly based on languages (“Liceo linguistico” in Italian), in which I have studied English, French (both for five years) and German (for three years) language and literature. There were also Italian and Latin language and literature, besides other subjects such as maths, physics, biology, physical education, religious education, history, philosophy, chemistry and earth science.
5. For some reason, sometimes, while talking to other people in Italian, a word might first come to my mind in English, rather than in Italian!!
6. I would like to learn Spanish. Two years ago I bought a DVD course that came out every week with a newspaper, “Il Sole 24 Ore”. I haven’t watched all the DVDs yet, only the beginner level ones (there are also intermediate and advanced level ones), but I don’t remember much… if only I had more time on my hands, I would start watching them again.
7. I studied Translation and Liaison Interpreting (“Mediazione linguistica” in Italian) at university. I chose that course over a Foreign Languages and Literatures one because I’ve always liked translating and studying languages with a more practice-oriented approach even if, before attending university, I wanted to become an English teacher.
8. When I started studying Interpreting during my sophomore year at university (there was only Translation in the first year), I immediately became a fan of the subject! During the first lecture I was wondering: “How do (simultaneous) interpreters manage to speak and listen at the same time?”. I studied mostly Liaison Interpreting, but there were some lectures on Conference Interpreting as well (even if I only did consecutive interpreting and no simultaneous, because it is usually taught in MA courses).
9. I tend to speak English with an American accent but, when it comes to writing, I try to use British spelling as much as possible (even if sometimes, for example, I happen to use the simple past instead of the present perfect, like in “I just had lunch” instead of “I’ve just had lunch”).
10. If I have a dictionary (I mean, any type of dictionary) on my hands, I usually close it only after a while! I like monolingual dictionaries the most, and printed versions more than online or CD-ROM ones.
    

By the way, LBT has a new layout now! I like this theme better than the previous one because everything looks neater, since the links and the like are only on one column instead of three. I also made a new header which fits the blog name and subject. I wanted one with a notebook, and I was undecided between this image and a spiral-bound notebook one (consecutive interpreter style).

A year ago I found (while reading “From Our Lips to Your Ears”, one of my favourite interpreting blogs) a very interesting radio programme on language-related topics: “Talkin’ About Talk”. It was broadcast in 2005, the Year of Languages in America. There are different topics covered, e.g. bilingualism, translation and interpreting, dialects, threatened or dying languages, language learning, etc. Here you can find all the radio scripts and download the episodes. Actually, I’ve listened only to “What does it take to be an interpreter”?, but I would like to download some other episodes (like “Is British English Superior to Ours?”, which is about British VS American English, a topic that has always fascinated me; “Do you have to go abroad to learn a language?”; “What does it mean to be bilingual?”; “Can you make a living loving languages?”; “What does it take to learn a language well?”; “How good is machine translation?”; and “How are dictionaries made?”).

“What talent it takes to translate one language into another — listening and speaking at the same time! You can’t pick up a dictionary. And you can’t just spit out words like a robot. The interpreter’s job is to convey meaning. And since a lot of meaning is expressed by tone of voice or the nuance of words and phrases, his job is far more than translating word for word.

[...]

A translator needs somewhat different skills. But again, strong knowledge of two languages is just the beginning, because translating can get very complicated. There’s the question of technical terms. Lawyers file writs of mandamus. Physicians treat hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. The terminology can be pretty daunting, and for translation you need to understand what it means. Because, like interpreting, translation isn’t about words. It’s about what the words are about. Simply looking things up in a dictionary isn’t enough. Not even close.”

(http://www.cofc.edu/linguist/archives/2005/10/what_does_it_ta_1.html)