Sunday, August 21, 2005

Russian to English to Spanish and back

Translating languages is a recognized challenge. Translating ideas . . .

1 comment:

Joyce White said...

We are tired today. I am tired. Those at the gathering are tired. We are also rejoicing.

I went to the train station last night to help meet our Peru and Bolivian Friends: their original tickets were lost in the Courier express mail. Rogelio (from Peru) spent 3 weeks getting here: paperwork to attend to in Lima, and more than one trip between Peru and Bolivia, visa problems, detainment in Mexico and $7 hourly fines. Rosa, Luis, Jesus and Sergio (Bolivians) also arrived. It was so good to see them, they finally arrived!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I knew the most Spanish in our group and did a lot of translation. We took them out to Chinese food and then back to the University where they were very warmly received - friends we have been waiting so long for. Many others did not get visas, many others who are not as well off socio-economically did not get to come.

Rosa is wearing the traditional clothes of those in La Paz - full skirt, embroidered shawl and dark bolo hat. Rosa joined my small discussion group in which Mike(from the UK) translated between Russian and English when Elena (Latvia) was speaking and I translated for Rosa, in Spanish. How rich the language was, and speaking simply truely has become a necesity and a reality now in our group.

Rogelio and I walked between our morning group gatheirng and small group time. With us (an American and Peruvian) were friends from Japan, Korea, Ireland, Germany and Syria (Ali, the doctor who examined my sprained knee: I'm feeling great when I take tylenol).

Then I translated for the Peru and Bolivian Friends, with much help from others, during our first afternoon workshop. Despite fumbling for words and misunderstanding concepts, I believe we all learned and they were able to contribute to the discussion.

My respect for our full-time translators has increased.

I guess I would also consider Jesus a full-time translator.