Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Called by any Other Name Would Smell as Sweet

The world is small; shrinking every moment a new technological device is created to connect more people together from around the world. As the world appears to be smaller, one of the main problems of becoming diverse is the language barrier. In this new world, it is easier and more accessible for any person to learn a new language that allows people to connect to each other better.
One problem of communicating in different languages is what most people call 'lost in translations'. After our class discussion, it made me wonder what were some of the deeper reasons its harder than we all think to communicate with someone who speaks a different language. From this thought, I have two main ideas that might explain why it is the way it is. The first reason is a more personal explanation; not everybody has the same sense of humor, or sees the same dread or awfulness in an event. This difference creates the barrier of having feelings being associated with a person's words. Feelings that are lost when spoken can even happen when two people are speaking the same language. When this happens it could that the two people come from two different places where words do not share the same meaning.
The other problem of speaking different languages is that people come from different cultures. This clash and not understanding another person's culture and society can create a strange meaning of words. While the world is shrinking and that allows cultures from around the world to merge, it is still difficult for every society to understand another. The simplest way to overcome 'lost in translation' is to remember that every culture, society, and person is different and try to use words that everyone understands.

1 comment:

Betsy said...

I agree! Our world is globalizing and most likely we are going to be working with people from all over the world in our jobs. I don't think it would be a bad idea for Saint Mary's to offer a cross-cultural class for learning to communicate, not just speak with, people from different countries.