Mango Languages

Translation Theory

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky in Russian

With the release of many e-readers, like the Nook, Kindle, iPad, Tablet, etc., books have become available to us at the touch of a button. Not only can we get millions of books electronically but nowadays we don’t even have to read them if we put on our headphones and tune in while multitasking with audio books.

With the availability to provide a plethora of books to readers within seconds, the demand for classic books translated into many different languages has significantly increased.

One of my favorite books is Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevsky. I originally read, or struggled to read, the book in its native language, Russian (this was my mother’s brilliant idea to get her 12 year old to learn Russian). When I found out that Crime and Punishment was on the summer list of books to read for my 11th grade English class, I was one of the very, very few who were ecstatic.

After having many discussions about the book in class, I realized many of the students were frustrated with this particular reading assignment. Aside from 576 page time commitment, I noticed that English students were having  a hard time with understanding the content of the book. Having read the book in Russian and English, the problem seemed to be in the translation. I couldn’t help but wonder, how much of the book’s original context got lost in translation?

It seems like there are just some cultural concepts that cannot be translated into another language. I noticed this also, when I read J.D. Salinger’s Catcher in the Rye. To many people’s surprise, I enjoyed the book in Russian more than in its original language, English. It seemed like there was more sarcasm that exuded from the main character in the Russian version. Some would say that this would depend on how proficient one is in a language, but I would challenge that by saying that English is my strongest language yet the the Russian version of the American classic appealed more to me.

This led me to think about the practice of translation and what that process incorporates. I recently came across linguisticblog.com, a great blog that has posts about all things linguist and language theory related. There was a great post, My Translation Theory by guest blogger Aleksandra Milcic Radovanovic that talks about the art of translation.

Radovanovic says, “During translation, the translator does not judge, he is open to every idea that can cross the author’s mind.” She explains that the translator is more like an actor and needs to put aside their own personal emotions and personality to play the character they are assigned, or in this case, to translate an original piece to another language without adding their personal thoughts.  She goes on to say, “It is not always possible to discover what the author’s intention was: to provide information or to provoke an aesthetic experience. Therefore, the translator must serve the author, stand behind him trying not to miss any of his ideas.”

Is it true that there are just some things that are not possible to fully translate into another language? That no matter how professional and experienced the translator is, some of the context will get altered  a bit due to the language of the book?

What are YOUR thoughts? Have you experienced this when reading a book that has been translated from its original language?

Texting in Different Languages

Mango Monday:
Recently I was texting with a friend who lives in NYC but happens to be Brazilian and I kept seeing “rsrs” after some of his comments. This meant nothing to me…I actually thought it was a typo at first. But quickly realized it might actually mean something when he wrote it a few times in his texts. I asked Josi, the princess of particulars here at Mango who is from Brazil and she confirmed that it did mean something! It was the equivalent to our “ha ha ha.” Wow!

This made me think that texting language is probably different all over the world. Here are just a few languages so now you can be an international texter of mystery!

French: haha = héhé and lol =mdr, which stands for “mort de rire” which translates to “dying of laughter”

Mandarin:
??? (Ha Ha Ha)

Japanese:
??????hahaha?? ha ha ha
?????????= smile / laugh , sometimes they only use ?? to keep things short, but they really like cuteness so instead of they would more likely do something like :
(????) ? ????? ? ?????

Portuguese:
rsrsrs= risos, you can read kkkk, that is the sound of laughing just like hahaha, and you can also read huahuauhahua, that it is another way of hahaha or kkkk.

Do you know of any other languages and their translations for Ha ha or lol? Please share!

Happy New Year… From Around the World!

Happy last day of 2010 every one!

Coming from a Russian background, New Year’s Eve has always been a big deal in my family. Although I have never been a part of a New Year’s celebration in Russia, I have heard countless stories about the traditions and customs.

In the Russian culture New Year’s Eve is a very important holiday, one which people look forward to from January 1st. Amongst the most popular New Year symbols is a New Year’s Tree called Novogodnaya Yolka which is topped with a bright star and decorated with various sweets. Another popularly celebrated New Year tradition is the arrival of Ded Moroz or Father Frost (Santa Claus) and his granddaughter Snegurochka the snow girl. They bring in New Year presents for the good children and keep them under the New Year’s Tree.

New Year is more of a winter vacation in Russia. Schools remain closed from January 1 till January 13. The main New Year celebrations begin from night of December 31. People usually prefer to spend the day with their friends and family members. Party clubs, hotels and discotheques are all jammed up at the time of New Year. The main New Year celebrations come to an end on January 13th, when the country celebrates the Old – Style New Year. This day is not declared as a public holiday but is celebrated to mark the beginning of the year according to the Julian calendar.

I love New Year’s Eve because it is celebrated differently all around the world. It marks the end of one year and all that is to come in the new year. Different cultures everywhere have different customs and traditions that make New Year’s Eve unique to their country.

Here is a list of some other interesting customs:

* Traditionally, the Spanish eat 12 grapes at midnight—for good luck.
* Displaying paper cuttings in China is a traditional custom.
* Mochituki—making New Year’s rice cakes is a fun Japanese tradition.
* In Thailand’s Songkran (The Water Festival), people get wet!
* Eating Ttok-Kuk (Rice Cake Soup) is traditional on the Korean New Year.
* Eating black-eyed peas for luck is a tradition in southern U.S. read more…

How do you celebrate New Year’s Eve?

I hope everyone has a very Happy and Safe New Year’s Eve! Happy 2011!

Christmas Around the World

According to Andy Williams, Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. In recent history, it may also be the most sensationalized holiday as well. Countries all over the world from the U.S. to Italy, or even to Japan celebrate this holiday every year, even if only a small portion of their populations are Christian. It’s really quite amazing.

For instance, every year in Russia, the holiday of Christmas is observed on January 7^th through the church. This is because the Russian Orthodox Church uses the Julian Calendar, which is 13 days behind the Gregorian Calendar used in most Western Countries. More and more these days, Christmas is being celebrated on the 25^th of December in Russia, though Church celebrations are generally still on the 7^th.

By contrast, Japan celebrates Christmas one day early, on the 24^th of December. This is an example of a country where Christmas is generally observed mostly as a commercial holiday. Stores begin having sales around the beginning of December, donned with Christmas trees, Santa Clauses, gifts and decorations, but only about 1% of the population of Japan is actually Christian. Christmas cake with strawberries and whipped cream is the general Christmas food, along with fried chicken. Wild!

It’s so interesting to think about all the different ways Christmas is celebrated throughout the world. Whether it has mostly religious undertones, or commercial undertones, Christmas is a genuinely recognized time of good will and gift giving around the world.
Tell us about how you’ve seen or heard of Christmas being celebrated! Do you and your loved ones celebrate it any certain way?

Learn Russian

Russian is the most geographically widespread language of Eurasia, the most widely spoken of the Slavic languages, and the largest native language in Europe. Russian belongs to the family of Indo-European languages and is one of three living members of the East Slavic languages, the others being Belarusian and Ukrainian (and possibly Rusyn, in Ukraine considered a dialect of Ukrainian and recognized in some countries).

The Russian language is primarily spoken in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Belarus, and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics of the USSR. During the Soviet period, the policy toward the languages of the various other ethnic groups fluctuated in practice. Though each of the constituent republics had its own official language, the unifying role and superior status was reserved for Russian. Following the break-up of the USSR in 1991, several of the newly independent states have encouraged their native languages, which has partly reversed the privileged status of Russian, though its role as the language of post-Soviet national discourse throughout the region has continued.

Russian is the official language of Russia. It is also an official language of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and the unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine. There are several opinions on how many dialects that Russia has. Some say two and some say three all based on regions.

If you get ambitious you could try Russian, once you have learned Russian you can begin to communicate with other Slav speakers.