Translation
Translation is difficult…especially when the two parties trying to translate have very limited language skills. One of the teachers came up to me after school let out and wanted to talk about his class saying. He had taught his students that there were different types of love: the love between parents and children, teachers and students, between friends, and between males and females. So the students wanted their class saying to be about love. They had originally thought “Everything is lovely” and when the students asked me if that was good English I said yes because it is. Turns out that is not what they wanted to say.
So after school the teacher came over and explained that he taught his class the different types of love and then explained why “Everything is lovely wouldn’t work” after about three or four minutes we finally understood each other. Then he wanted me to think of a simple way to say the class saying. First I came up with “Love is all around” but we decided that isn’t to simple. Then I came up with “Love is everything” and I explained it as love is important and love is number one. He said it would work; it was hard to come up with a way to explain love so simply and in the way the students wanted because love is a difficult concept to narrow down with horrible commutation skills. I really need to improve my Japanese. Thank goodness that the teacher had enough English to explain things to me. (I was pretty impressed)
So after school the teacher came over and explained that he taught his class the different types of love and then explained why “Everything is lovely wouldn’t work” after about three or four minutes we finally understood each other. Then he wanted me to think of a simple way to say the class saying. First I came up with “Love is all around” but we decided that isn’t to simple. Then I came up with “Love is everything” and I explained it as love is important and love is number one. He said it would work; it was hard to come up with a way to explain love so simply and in the way the students wanted because love is a difficult concept to narrow down with horrible commutation skills. I really need to improve my Japanese. Thank goodness that the teacher had enough English to explain things to me. (I was pretty impressed)