Showers and Issues in Translation

As I settle down in Qingdao, my blog entries may begin to change a bit. Before, all I had to do was sit down and start writing about the places I visited. Now, it's different. I have to think a little bit more to make the entries worth it for you all to read. By the way, thanks for reading. It is a great encouragement for me to read your comments and know that I have readers. Also, the invitation is always open for questions. Got any?

What do you think about the picture? As you can probably guess, today it rained today in Qingdao (actually, the entire day). And as people here do a lot of walking, obviously they are going to bring along their umbrellas. I took this picture outside of my office where everyone set out their bumbershoots to dry. I don't think I've ever seen any more umbrellas in one spot as I did today.

After work, I went out for coffee with my fellow coworker and friend, Clement. Clement is a native Frenchman who speaks French, English, Italian, and Chinese. Over Starbucks coffee, we were able to have a great discussion about issues in translation.

One of the themes that we brought up was how to handle the source and the target languages. It can get a little dicey at times. One approach is to cater to the source language, making sure that nearly every little word was represented in the target language translation. In this way, all the meanings are brought out, but it may sound a little bit awkward and unnatural. Another approach is to cater to the target language, focusing is on the general meaning and less on every single word. This approach allows the translation to sound more fluent, but sacrifices the literal meanings of the source language. It's a hard line to walk because you have to straddle both languages and come up with a happy medium.

I'm just on the cusp of learning things like this and am by no means at all an expert. Today was like day one of kindergarten; I still have so much to learn!