Studying Languages
I've been studying Spanish, Italian, German and Russian daily on D u o l i n g o . (Spaces inserted to prevent changes by Predictive text.) I am keenly waiting for the website to add Greek.
I have registered an interest in Greek and a couple of other languages and they will notify me when the course is completed. Today I checked all the available languages, just in case a new one was available. I found that Hebrew had been added. So I started that.
I looked at several other languages. Dutch is similar to German - and Afrikaans. Dutch is spoken in half of Belgium.
But Swedish links with Norwegian and Danish, countries nearer to the UK, so I have started Swedish. Besides, I like the sound of Swedish.
When I went to France as a schoolgirl to learn French in my holidays to improve my A levels, I met a handsome Swedish boy. (Harry Sandberg.) I applied to do Swedish at university. I ended up choosing philosophy instead. I now regret not doing Swedish, which would have been more useful as a career choice, as a translator or interpreter or English teacher, and on holiday.
Tips on Alphabet and Grammar
At the start of a new language on Duolingo there is a slide-up set of notes on the first page.
On my screen sometimes the tips on page one disappear which makes the first lesson challenging. Once you know that the tips on the unfamiliar alphabet are always handy with a click for reading the letters, you make faster progress.
My first four languages are this year's basic task. The other two languages are a bonus. An extra, when I am tired of the other four.
Good Use Of Time
I am no longer wasting time waiting for transport. I am never bored.
I no longer get impatient when waiting for a train. I can fill in time waiting at an airport to board a plane. If I am awake on a plane I can make good use of my time.
When I put a text into Google translate I can tell at once what is wrong with the translation. I have the confidence to read on through the apparent gobbledygook because now only one or two words have a changed meaning.
Watching Films With Subtitles
When travelling, films in foreign languages will gradually become easier to follow, as well as providing the bonus of helping to reinforce and expand my vocabulary in foreign languages.
On Singapore Airlines I saw a film which I watched in Spanish with English subtitles. It is a film made in Buenos Aires, capital of Argentina. Subtitles were challenging.
I hunted for the title for weeks. Later, I found it on the page of the in-flight magazine which I found. In future I shall take a mobile phone photograph of the write-up of the films I watch.
El Espejo - Translated
The film I enjoyed was called El Espejo De Los Otros. Google translates by giving me the word mirror, nothing more. I translate the title as The Mirror of Other People.
The implication is both that other people mirror us, as individuals. Also, or instead, other people are a mirror showing us another view of the whole world.
Do others mirror us, as the Scottish poet Robert Burns (author of Auld Lang Syne) said: "Would that God the gift ee gee us, to see ourselves as other see us." In modern English I translate that as: I wish/if only/ God the gift would give us, to see ourselves as others see us. The original rhymes, which is why the old style language and Scottish dialect is usually preserved in the quotation.
Now let's go back to the Spanish film or movie title.
el - the
espejo - mirror (think of similar words from the same root: spectre, spectacle, expect, spy, espy)
de - of
los - the (plural, masculine or inclusive of male and female)
otros - others
Joys Of Translation
For example, further on in the brief summary of the plot. a wall is described in English as tasteless. That makes no sense. The Spanish word is i n s i p i d o . I would translate that in context as unremarkable or inconspicuous or even 'a wall which a passer-by might not notice'. A translator could add their own embellishment, the implication:
inspido
A plain wall.
An undecorated wall.
An unadorned wall.
A wall with no sign indicating what is beyond.
A wall which does not suggest what is beyond, leaving you to imagine and invent your own scenario.
Translating is a wonderful word game. A skill. A source of pride. Creative.
Angela Lansbury, author, travel writer, English teacher and speaker.
