Tag: Translation

Different Bible Translations

January 27, 2015

Here is a link to a great website that compiles a bunch of different Bible translations. What’s fascinating is to compare the same verse from the different translations and interpretations to see varied the texts can be. How important is language when it comes to communicating ideas particularly with something as important as religion?

Here is a link to a famous passage from the Bible, John 3:16

http://www.biblestudytools.com/john/3-16-compare.html

Depending on which translation you chose to read, you would come away with very different ideas about what God expects of people.

Here’s a link to the main site.

http://www.biblestudytools.com/compare-translations/

All of this raises interesting questions about what the job of translators and interpreters is. Are they supposed to translate literal words? Are they supposed to communicate meaning even if some words have to change? How are you supposed to know the choices they made are accurate or true?

Here is a handout I made on this topic

Compare and Contrast John 3 16

Words that don’t exist in English

January 26, 2015

Here are a few sites that document words that exist in other languages but not in English.

What does it mean that these words don’t exist in English? Do these words tell us something about the cultures they come from? About us? Is it generally random chance that cultures invent words for some concepts but not for others? If a word can’t directly be translated, does it mean that the concept cannot truly be known to nonnative speakers of those languages?

http://www.babbel.com/magazine/untranslatable-01

http://mentalfloss.com/article/50698/38-wonderful-foreign-words-we-could-use-english

http://www.buzzfeed.com/alanwhite/23-charming-illustrations-of-untranslatable-words-from-other#.qk1KZvJ4M

Radiolab Podcast: Words

January 22, 2015

It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without words. But this hour, we try to do just that.

We meet a woman who taught a 27-year-old man the first words of his life, hear a firsthand account of what it feels like to have the language center of your brain wiped out by a stroke, and retrace the birth of a brand new language 30 years ago.

http://www.radiolab.org/story/91725-words/

Here is a shorter version of the podcast I made for my class:

Radiolab Podcast: Translation

January 22, 2015

“How close can words get you to the truth and feel and force of life? That’s the question poking at our ribs this hour, as we wonder how it is that the right words can have the wrong meanings, and why sometimes the best translations lead us to an understanding that’s way deeper than language. This episode, 8 stories that play out in the middle space between one reality and another — where poetry, insult comedy, 911 calls, and even our own bodies work to close the gap.”

http://www.radiolab.org/story/translation/?utm_source=local&utm_medium=treatment&utm_campaign=daMost&utm_content=damostviewed

I adapted this episode into a shorter audio file you can listen to here: