(Not) lost in translation
Translating is something I really love to do. I think it's because it combines a lot of my strengths: writing, research, communication and helping people. I love the challenge of finding that EXACT word or phrase that translates not just the meaning, but the FEELING of the words into a different language. I registered on a website called ProZ.com with Hungarian-English and Russian-English language pairs, and once in a while I get freelance translating jobs from it. Yesterday, I got a phone call from Texas, it's an agency I worked for before, and they sent me a university diploma and transcript to translate from Hungarian to English. It was fun AND a bit of extra money! Yeeey. As I was reading the course list, I found myself curious about some of the subjects: philosophy, history of economics, political theory. I wonder what politics they teach now at a Hungarian university, now that there is no communism/socialism. They are still teaching the Russian language, even at university level, and what was really surprising, they had Phys Ed! In university! For an Economics major!!!!! LOL. 2 hours a week. Well, it makes sense, they probably need it for stress relief after studying Linear Algebra and Finance and Calculus and Accounting and Demographics. Hopefully, no one can flunk Phys. Ed... I would... LOL. never been the most coordinated girl, unless you're talking about the colour of my shoes and outfit....
posted by flameskb at 5:12 PM
4 Comments:
I just finished reading THE HISTORIAN by Elizabeth Kostova, and learned quite a bit about Hungary in the process. I'm impressed by multilingual people. I used to be virtually fluent in French, and have lost almost all of that from lack of use. *sigh* I'm even more impressed by people who have mastered Russian, with that weird Cyrillic script (I can look at PECTOPAH all day long and not see 'restaurant')...
5:39 PM
LOL, that's cute. PECTOPAH. LOL... but it's true, it is different... I was four when my Mom taught me to read and write Russian. It caused problems for me later on, in first grade when I tried to learn the Hungarian letters... to this day, when I write quickly by hand, I mix up d and g. (the small Russian d is written like g). But at age three, I was actually translating between my parents: Mom would be in the kitchen, and she would say in Russian, go see Daddy and tell him I want him to go to the store and get eggs. I would go to my dad and tell him (in Hungarian) what she said and take his reply back to Mom, and tell her in Russian... without any effort or thinking on my part - one parent was associated with one language, the other one with the other...
6:35 PM
That's awesome. Whenever you get to feeling down about yourself, remember that skill of yours--one that many people would give their eye teeth for.
7:03 PM
I used to know French, too. But then, when that side of your family casts you aside, you start to dislike everything that distinguishes them from the other parts of your family. So how come I married an Irishman?
6:14 AM
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