Category: mini-blog
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What is Translation? (Part 1)
The more concrete the linguistic example, the more on-point the cross-cultural translation would be. The more abstract, the less helpful for specific situations.
For most highly nuanced expressions, it’s best to 1) apply the expression to a specific social situation, then 2) transfer that social situation culturally to the target language’s natural environment and then 3) extrapolate the best fit for that situation in that language. Now if we do this over a number of scenarios,, we may conclude that 1) there is a universal expressions that mostly “fits all” or that 2) there isn’t, and you must adjust to each circumstance(s)
And i’m not experienced enough to know from the get go whether an expression belongs to #1 or #2 above.
And some more.
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Someone on HelloTalk asked for feedback on her…
Someone on HelloTalk asked for feedback on her sentence “그럼에도 다시 일어나, 숨 쉬고 미소 짓고 앞으로 전진해”.
I wanted to discuss the poetic imagery a bit to have the sentence flow more naturally.
Ok.. So the imagery is that the 화자 was running (in the race.. Of.. Life, i guess), but stumbled across a little rock and fell and hurt herself. And then starts the line, “Despite it, I will stand, take a deep breath, smile and keep walking forward”.
Like the other person suggested, in this situation it’s not merely breathing, but “breathing in”, as in, you know there iwll have harder things coming in life, so you are stocking up on resources. Similar to “이를 악물고”, but softter nuance.
“그럼에도 불구하고 나는 일어나. 천천히 숨을 들이쉬고”Then “천천히 숨을 들이쉬고 미소 짓고” , there is nothing wroing with it, but rhythm wise it’s a bit off, it would feel more balanced to lengthen “미소 짓고” but I can’t think of something appropriate for that purpose for the moment.
Then the last part “앞으로 전진해” is not quite on point with the rest of the imagery/situation, because 전진해 is used often in military contexts, and even if not military, it gives the imagery oif someone walking under heavy rain/opposite direction wind, clenching teeth, and barely walking one step at a time using up all their energy.. Is what 전진하다 invokes when used with the rest of words.
So i’d suggest “다시 달려나가” (for faster movement) or “다시 걸음을 내딛어” for a more micro frame.
So yeah, that’s my feedback.
“그럼에도 불구하고 나는 일어나. 천천히 숨을 들이쉬고, 미소 지으며 목표를 상기해. 그리고 다시 걸음을 내딛으며 하루가 시작되는 거야”
None of this is grammatical, but more with the flow of the expression.
Hmm…I’d revise the above expression and throw “새로운 하루” instead of 하루 for deeper impression.
“그럼에도 불구하고 나는 일어나. 천천히 숨을 들이마시고, 미소 지으며 주어진 목표를 상기해. 그리고 다시 걸음을 내딛으며 새로운 하루가 시작되는 거야”
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People on KakaoTalk were wondering about the origins of this language Wunderkind so I came up with a plausible conjecture:
자, 로레나님은 경기도 수원시 권선구에서 태어났어요. 로레나님 가족은 평화롭게 수렵 활동을 하고 있었죠.
하지만 로레나님의 부모님은 남다른 대륙의 기상이 있었어요. “북쪽으로.. 북쪽이 고프다!” 로레나님의 가족은 뜻이 맞는 다른 이들과 일심단결해서 약 1만 4천년 전 마지막 빙하기에 꽁공 얼어붙은
베링 해협을 건너게 됩니다….
그리고 약 1만년 전 띠띠까까 호수 주변에 정착을 하게 되죠
로레나님은 어느날 일본어를 공부하다가 내재적 발견 과정을 통해 자신의 마음 속에 새겨져 있는 한국어의 창제 원리와 발성 기법을 재발견하게 됩니다. 그리고 헬로톸에 가입하고.. 거기서 저와 만나 소주톸으로 인도하심을 받습니다.
“Life… uh… life finds a way”
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A couple years ago we organized a major…
A couple years ago we organized a major 200-person conference style event. I wanted to put up the materials on our website, but there was serious concern that this could tank attendance, as people would read the materials and not come to the conference.
I think the opposite is the case. People would read the materials, find it super interesting, understand that the event is not some BS event, and come to the conference to be part of this important discussion.
There are so many potential unique benefits that an in-person attendance to an event can provide. Networking, connecting with the presenters, sharing your perspectives, digging into logical gaps, asking for source materials, getting a feel of the room on a divisive opinion, etc.
I think even streaming an event live can help with attendance. If I was local to an event city, and was watching a conference via streaming, and found it to be super valuable, I would actually turn off the computer and come to the conference. I don’t go to conferences because I have attended enough and found most of them to be completely useless. Live streaming is one of the closest things to getting a feel of the event before the event takes place – I would totally go to one if I could see that participants actually know what they are talking about.
If an event has zero benefits to offer/lure live participants, from the many possible benefits, then that event really doesn’t deserve to be held as a live event. Just pre-record the thing, and distribute the video to subscribers/payees (if you have such a model) or release it on the internet.
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Heh she looked so genuinely scared
Heh she looked so genuinely scared
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The difficulties of coordinating live conversations between people in Korea-England-US/Canada
In the KakaoTalk Korean/English exchange group, the idea of doing audio conversation practices came up, and we have been trying to work out times that worked out for everyone. We had participants from Korea, U.S./Canada, and England. We thought that this would be pretty simple, but at the crux of the problem is this phenomenon:
- The more participants join from Korea, the more lively (and fruitful) for everyone it will be, since there will be more Korean language speaking, and also more to be gained from the English.
- Best time for people in Korea is evening time (7pm-12am)
- Turns out that during this time, people in the other two countries are either mostly sleeping (U.S. 3am-11am) or working (England 11am-4pm)
We could find two workable time periods for Saturdays, and squeeze out limited opportunities for weekday early morning or late evenings, but that’s about it.
Another interesting thing is that the bulk of participants are not in the U.S./Canada, and instead in England. The unfortunate thing is that England’s time and Korea’s time are very much not compatible. The way it has been turning out, Korea and England gaspingly scratch the edges of the normal day (midnight/early morning) between the two of them, and the western hemisphere sits very comfortably right in the middle of that arrangement, during the ideal golden time (6pm-9pm)
This finding runs counter to my experience calling Korea. Calling Korea has been actually pretty easy. Call them in the late afternoon from LA, and it’s morning there. What’s the difference?
Well, those calls were for work, so I could do them during the 9am-5pm window. Once the activity is for hobby, it is no longer possible to have them during work hours, and the window of opportunity narrows down significantly. Could we extend this thought to claim that the earth was (unfortunately) shaped to foster corporate global exchange across the Pacific, but not so much individual exchange/communications, and more acutely between Europe and the Far East?
Sound like a stretch? Yeah, sounds like a stretch.