Re: Translating vs. Thinking

["Sangqar (Sean Healy)" <sangqar@hotmail.com>]

>The next level of challenge after conversational fluency is the ability to
>do real-time translation.  After seeing in Las Vegas that it was possible
>(thanks, Qov!), several of us have occasionally acted as informal
>interpreters during storytelling sessions.

This is a special skill.  My Finnish is so good that when I was living 
there, people would assume I was Finnish.  When they found out I was not, 
they would often ask whether one of my parents was Finnish, and I grew up 
speaking it (I didn't.)  And yet, I still had trouble with real-time 
translation.  I hope that if I had had more practice, I would have been able 
to do it, but the few times I did it, I was fumbling for the English word, 
because the Finnish word was linked to a concept in my head, a concept that 
did not translate easily.  Obviously, some words will be one-to-one - animal 
names, body parts (although not all of them), concrete nouns.

When I was in college, I lived in the same apartment complex with several 
people who were going for their Spanish translation major.  Some of them 
were very very good if you gave them a document and sat them down at a 
computer - but they couldn't do real-time translation.  They had the same 
trouble that I had in Finnish - they had to stop and think of the right 
word, because the concepts don't exactly match.

Since there are even fewer exact concept matches between Klingon and English 
than between Spanish and English, or between Finnish and English, I respect 
anyone who has developed this skill in Klingon.  It really does require more 
than simple fluency (or even near-native fluency).

> >I'm nowhere near that point in Klingon, although I have reached the point
> >where, if I'm reading Klingon, I will formulate responses in Klingon in 
>my
> >head, whereas I used to formulate responses internally in English and 
>then
> >have to translate them into Klingon.
>
>tugh laH rap
>Dachav bIQoy'qu'DI', qar'a'?

vIchav jIQoy'*chugh*.  latlh tlhIngan Hol jatlhwI' vISovbe'.  (ghom 
jeSwI'pu' vISov, 'ach vIja'laHbe'.  jIghItlhlaH neH.)

qaStaHvIS Hoch DIS wa'maH jaj leSpoH vIHev.  matay'DI' juppu'wI' jIH je 
HoqDaq wIjaHmeH vagh vIlo'.  DISvam qorDu'wI' vISuchmeH latlh vagh vIlo'.  
vaj qep'a'Daq vIjaHlaHbe'.  chaq DIS veb qep'a'vaD wej jaj vIlo'laH (Huch 
yap vIghajchugh).

mujatlh wa' jupwI': <<tlhIngan Hol vIHaD vIneH, 'ach poH vIghajbe'.>>  Qu' 
ghaj, be'nal ghaj, cha' puq ghaj, vaj poH ghajbe'.  meqvamvo' be'nal 
vIghajbe'.  (latlh meq vIghaj je: muneHbe' be' vIneHbogh.  'ach latlh lut 
'oH.)

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