Translation into other language is a difficult task. I guess it is
harder in ordinary contents than in specialized ones. Surprised?
I
often read special articles about psychiatry which is my specialty. It is not
so tough for me if I have enough time. On the other hand, I hardly read English novels.
What is the difference?
Every article has
own context. And contexts are based on their culture. I have to know culture in
the context to understand them completely. Psychiatry is based on science. So I can understand articles about psychiatry based on scientific context. Since
culture of science is universal.
However, I have to understand culture of
foreign country and another era when I read English novels. It is not so easy.
One of the most difficult tasks in
translation is to translate words which are rhymed. Translators can be
distressed if the original article has many rhymed words.
It is one example of a good job in
translating.
In cognitive psychology, it is said that a person in front of
obvious danger feels excited emotion. It is called “fight or fright.” A scholar
translate it into “tohsoh ka tohsoh ka” in Japanese. The former “tohsoh” means
combat, and the latter “tohsoh” means escape. There are same in sounds but
differ from each other in Kanji (Chinese character). This translation is cool,
isn't it?
I think that "specific terms" in your sepciality makes it easier to read English specialized sentence. If you go to abroad, what you must do first is to listen other person`s conversation carefully and to identify the terms in it, such as the names of movies, sports teams, and so on... Then you can search them in Google. This makes it easier to join the general conversation.
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