I got this article brewing for like 4 days now, inspired from the lengthy post of the talking head in noise.cash when they explained with "heart and soul" on how to avoid being a spam. So, they translate the entire post in different languages, Filipino included. Ironically, no matter how full blooded Filipino I am, I can get lost in translation.
I can feel the effort of the developers and owner of the platform. I for one has a been a content writer for almost a year in a different platform synonymous with read.cash, only that all content must be in English, at least here the site grants article of foreign language. Well, that was 5 years ago, it disappeared in oblivion before their 1st year, all happy earnings stopped because of the plagiarizers, from none English native speakers who wanted to earn (nothing wrong with that) but never dare to publish original contents and worst just bad in following the rules. Now, I understand that no matter how we want to earn, we also need to respect what this platforms expects from us.
We can get lost in translating, that is pretty common. Finding the right words from what we felt and how we describe it is hard, how much more if we need to express it in a language not ours! Sometimes, we can go out of words from the things we witnessed or experienced, these I see are normal thus it is better if we could express them in our own words and in the language we are comfortable using. I think this was what the noise.cash team wanted to point out on that lengthy post and reminder. That it is better for us to comment sincerely and dissently on something using our language than just comment with "nice post" etc.
In the real world, we can get lost in translation too. In the hospital I’ve been working with in one Arab country before, we have lots of patients from different companies and different nationalities. It is a routine that before any procedure, check-up or any medical intervention, patients will be filling up a personal record form from the reception to ensure follow through of insurance/ company policies.
One day, a sporty guy came to the reception, and since our Egyptian receptionist was always late I was requested by our department director to sit a minute at the front desk. I handed the form to this new patient, and after he wrote his name and address on the paper, he seemed to be brought up short by the query: “FIRM?” He nibbled the end of her pen for a moment, and then wrote: “Not very!” and handed back the form to me. I just sheepishly smile, giving back the paper and explained that the FIRM part was supposed to be the company name, lol!
Apparently, firm is synonymous with company, but not everyone knows that well. Anyone can get lost! So, I bet this form needed an editing, or perhaps we should be filling our minds from time to time with new vocabulary.
How can we find a solution for this? Clearly, we can't change the world, and we can't change the norm - that English is a universal language. So the easiest solution would be to learn the language and be open-minded that for us to communicate effectively with other nationalities is to learn the language itself.
“Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young.”
― Henry Ford
Guess, learning is the new fountain of youth! Never stop learning!
How about a funny translation?
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