Lost in Translation

My first thought of “Lost in Translation” and what I might have to say on this life lesson was a vivid memory of an incident that occurred several years after I had started teaching. I was one of a handful of students at BG who studied Latin, and my first teaching position was a full schedule of teaching just that. My fourth year students were reading/translating Ovid and Roman mythology. After studying each story, my students were to write their own synopsis of that myth in Latin.

After reading the story of Arachne, the weaver who was challenged by Athena to create a tapestry, my students went to work creating their own summaries. I shall never forget the essay in which the student described Arachne as a beautiful sewer, not the word meaning a user of thread, but the one which describes a pipe which disposes of waste material. In this case, being “lost” helped me illustrate the power of language.

One does not have to be dealing with a foreign language to be “lost.” How words are received may be totally opposite of the intention of the speaker. For example, I worked under one principal who did not want the faculty to make any positive comments about a student’s appearance. “Oh, you look nice today” seems to be an innocent enough remark. This principal felt the student would not hear that, but would hear “I looked awful yesterday.” Could a compliment be “lost in translation?” Obviously, some people think so.

All of us have had our words misconstrued and have misunderstood the words of others. Perhaps we were distracted, tired, disinterested, in a hurry, angry or anxious. Whatever the reason for our miscomprehension, sometimes we find it easy to clarify our words or to ask for an additional explanation from another. If my friend is talking about her new granddaughter, and I “miss” part of what she is describing, I need only ask her to repeat it. The stranger whom I stopped in Charleston and asked for directions to The Battery gave me one route but immediately changed his train of thought and directed me another way. In both instances, I “got” message. Getting the message is not always the case. I only have to look at the many conversations I have had with my children over the years to realize that.

In our global community, knowing the truth is very difficult. Nuances in language make it virtually impossible to truly know the veracity and intent of what another person is saying. We have to take into account not only the words themselves, but also voice inflections and body language. I find it amazing we understand each other as well as we do. So I suppose that is the life lesson we can all learn. We all need to try very hard to not be “lost” when we are dealing with one another.

Sally (Liphart) Berkhouse ’68, Education