<Language Corner>
Is there any such thing as a
true translation?
Open up any English-Japanese dictionary to find a
translation of the word ‘blue’ and it will come up
with ‘ao’. For ‘green’ you get ‘midori’. But is this
all the information you really need?
Consider this situation. A Japanese person tells
an Australian English speaker at the traffic lights;
‘Hey, you can go, it’s blue!’ The response is one
of shock. The Australian says, ‘How on earth can
a traffic light turn blue?! Oh, I see you mean “green”!’
By this stage, both participants are looking at
each other in utter bewilderment.
By looking at the colour spectrum below, we can
see what is happening here. According to this theory,
the ‘go’ signal falls in an area which English speakers
perceive as green and Japanese speakers perceive
as ‘ao’. (Perhaps we English speakers are never
satisfied to call an object blue until every trace
of yellow has been removed, or maybe Japanese speakers
think English is not strict enough about what we
define as green!)
This example tells us that even the seemingly simple
words, ‘ao’ and ‘midori’ are not adequate translations
of ‘blue’ and ‘green’. On the other hand, traffic
lights in Japan definitely look a little bluer. Perhaps
international travellers project the colour they are
accustomed to onto the local lights. Does the colour
make the word or vice versa? And, at the end of the
day, what does this mean for language learners?
Basically, I think there are a couple of lessons
here.
･Language learning requires flexibility ? to some
extent, you have to forget what you know.
･Don’t rely on your dictionary! Learn to pick up
words in context and learn from the situation, rather
than the translation.
Good luck with that and ? whatever language you
are learning ? enjoy it!
- Evan Chapman
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