"You Are What You Speak" was a particularly interesting article for me to read because of its connection to social psychology & psycholinguistics. In Global House at BU, we actually spent a discussion section talking about gendered words in some European languages and the influence that it may have on how someone perceives the object (such as with bridges as mentioned in the article). We spoke about it in the context of bias as well as how European languages with gendered words can adapt to a modern society where gender isn't quite just male and female. In addition, we covered words that weren't easily translatable such as しょうがない, よろしく, and お疲れ for Japanese and Schadenfreude for German. Of these, I think しょうがない is a good example of how our brains tend to lean towards the "it can't be helped" mentality. As outlined in the article, it's not as though non-Japanese speaking folks wouldn't understand it, but those who natively speak Japanese seem to have more of an affinity for thinking that way.
"On the Different Methods of Translating," other than finding it needlessly wordy, was interesting in that it puts into perspective the experience of bringing the audience to the author or the author to the audience through a translator. When translating from Japanese to English, I frame my thoughts in the context of Japan (if that makes sense) and if I'm doing the opposite, I'll frame my thoughts in the context of the States. While this isn't exactly a conscious decision, I do find it important to remain aware of the cultural context and implications of words. Even a simple word choice like "consequence" tends to have a negative connotation, though the word itself is neutral. If an author chose to use consequence as opposed to result, I like to think that the implications are also of importance. Hence I try to retain that when translating. Of course, it is much, much easier said than done.
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