One effect of my highly introverted brain structure is that thoughts and ideas don't always come to me in words. They come to me in abstract, intangible concepts, which then need to be consciously and mindfully put in les mots justes before I can express them. This is why sometimes in conversation I just sit there saying nothing. This is why I sometimes just freeze up in my other languages - when the concept isn't coming out in perfect words, it isn't coming out at all. (Hoshi Sato demonstrates this phenomenon here.) It's actually an advantage in translation, because I'm less likely to become married to the idea that a certain word is a certain concept, so my translations are more idiomatic and I don't fall for calques or faux amis as often. But sometimes it's a disadvantage in real life, because people tend to evaluate you based on the words on the tip of your tongue.
Today this is annoying me especially, because I just read this article, and there's something he's missing. It's a nuance. I'm certain it's present IRL, but the USian author of that article can't see it from where he's sitting. I know it's there. I can feel it in my brain. I could point you to the precise part of my brain where I can feel it. But it isn't coming to me in words.
It's like I'm a fish who has lived in salt water my whole life and has never been in fresh water, talking to a fish who has lived in fresh water his whole life and has never been in salt water (it's amazing what modern telecommunications technology can do!), trying to explain to this freshwater fish what it feels like when ocean salinity levels change. I know there is something he isn't groking, but I can't articulate it because it's both a subtle nuance and an inherent part of my cultural environment.
And, current events being what they are, by the time it comes to me in words, it will be irrelevant.
5 comments:
Approvingly your article helped me altogether much in my college assignment. Hats afar to you post, intention look forward in the direction of more cognate articles without delay as its united of my favourite issue to read.
It's amazing the way different people's brains are structured and how they interpret things. My brother and I are almost complete polar opposites on this. I think almost exclusively in words, I have to struggle really hard to even visualize something as simple as a flower. He on the other hand can't think in words at all, when he has to think of verbal things he actually has to picture the word in his brain and make an image out of it.
When I was in like Grade 5, our spelling book had exercises where they showed the shape of the word and we had to pick the word from the spelling list that fit that shape. I never understood that exercise, but I guess it was for people like your brother.
This is very interesting to me, and I never know where I fit in. I imagine myself as thinking in words, since I'm a writer, but then I sometimes visualize to ge the word I need - and I can sometimes visualize the physical shape of a word.
I suck at spatial relations, but I'm great at jigsaw puzzles.
I like your insight into why your mode of thinking helps you with translation.
Also thanks for the Greenwald link, I hadn't seen that one.
Sorry for my bad english. Thank you so much for your good post. Your post helped me in my college assignment, If you can provide me more details please email me.
Post a Comment