10/5: Comments

    Carpenter's conundrum with onomatopoeia is something that I relate to quite a bit, especially when in a scenario where I have to explain what a certain onomatopoeia means. Like when explaining Japanese grammar structures, there's a learned, almost instinctual component to understanding onomatopoeia for me in Japanese, making explaining difficult. When I was in a position where I had to translate between English and Japanese for English speaking students and Japanese speaking students, I struggled to explain the difference ほかほか and ぽかぽか as well as ぽつぽつ, ざーざー, ぽたぽた and ぱらぱら, the former being for temperature and the latter being for rain. I found a way around it by explaining through a scenario, like what Carpenter does with pitter patter, but it was still a little difficult. 

    I also really love how Carpenter equates translating to coloring a coloring book. It's a metaphor that I really like because you're of course bound to the lines and to some extent you can cover something by adding a tree or animal, but still, at a certain point, you edit to the point where the lines can't be seen. This makes it an original art piece and not coloring within the lines, which would be unfortunate if you were trying to color within the lines.