Translation in the 21st Century:Challenge or Chance?

 With globalization dominating the trends of the current century, humans seek a higher need to establish a stronger translation basis in all nations. We get curious about other countries and we feel obligated to enhance our interpretation skills to do business with other continents. With all this excitement at hand, the field of transtology rises, and many languages majors seek to engage in the world of exotic tongues. However, are humans ready for the rise of transtology studies? This continues to be a big question at hand.

  To date, studies have shown that humans have not entirely reached the mark for "mature translation practices"; which is to say, we may speak two languages well and with full fluency, but the knowledge that we have about the cultures that lie behind languages is still too weak for us to realize the real challenges of translation. In addition, translation in the practical world may sound easy, but translation in the literary world is a whole new unparalleled challenge that almost no one in the world could dominate. In my point of view, literary translations are a hybrid work of art with the soul of another language. For example, the translated work of Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s novels can be seen as literature, but its very essence differs from the great author’s original Spanish version. Languages are bits of culture themselves, and even languages that are close or cognate in terms of origin vary considerably in grammar structure, logic, philosophy, and pronunciation. This difference makes translation seem like an extremely difficult, even impossible task to accomplish.

Parents' Responsibilities in a Child's Language Acquisition

All of us are aware that parents play an imprescindible role in building a child’s language potentials, and here are some facts that one may want to follow:

        To begin with, it is not advisable to educate a child to be bilingual at an too early an age. A child should first consolidate his first language until the age of three or four before proceeding onto the second language. A third language is not recommended until the child develops mature usage of the first two tongues.

        If the parents insist in getting their kids to be bilingual, there are two major ways to achieve this goal. Once the child demonstrates that he can articulate well, one of his parents should start communicating with him in a second tongue, and the other parent should continue talking to him in his first language. Note that both the father and the mother should always stick to the same languages when talking to the child. If these parents care about the child’s fluency in both languages, the easiest way is to take their infants to a nation where the targeted language is spoken as an official tongue. Note that the child has to carry in speaking his first language in a family context.

        Language acquisition is a complicated myth that researchers are still fighting to unravel. However, if parents think clearly before they plan their child’s language learning, I trust that there is hope for every family to have bright bilingual children.

 

What My Almost-Perfect Community Needs on Language Planning

        I’ve lived in Mucha for 10 years now, and it is indeed a perfect community—a quiet atmosphere with fresh air and beautiful sceneries. However, one thing I cannot tolerate about the place is the lack of international perspective among inhabitants. I have come up with a few ideas to improve that aspect in my community, with the help of language learning-facilities.

        I strongly trust that English is the key towards developing a community’s international potentials, and hence I conjecture that the local government should promote more free English courses to all. The authorities may think of ways to motivate people to participate in these courses, say, provide free meals for those who come to the community English classes or provide coupons in the local market for those who pass a community English test. With food and money pushing on its back, perhaps there would be more people who would take time to take English courses and improve their speaking abilities.

        Another way to promote English in the community would be to encourage foreigners to live in Mucha. The local authorities could offer cheaper rents to foreigners, and with a rapid increase of international inhabitants, people in the neighborhood would be obligated to speak English in work, in the bus, in the market, and in the elevator. Though this may seem like a less effective way of improving the local Taiwanese’s English, in the long run at least Mucha would become a more international area in Taipei.

        Mucha seems like a village that one would see in late 18 century Taipei, and it is time to build intercultural mindsets among the people. I sincerely hope that in the near future, the government could take measures and examine ways to improve that aspect.

 

Frustrations as a Language Instructor

In my junior year I was lucky enough to get a part-time job as a Spanish instructor in National Chengchi University's Foreign Language Group. On the very first day of class, it suddenly hit me that I possessed a very natural talent in teaching languages and explaining culture and grammar; that was a feeling so strong that I immediately fell in love with language-teaching, and I have been trying to discover the difficulties and struggles of beginners who are learning Spanish. However, as much as I love it, there are many troubles that come with this job. The process isn't half as easy as it looks like, and to date I have experienced so, so many frustrations. Allow me to elaborate on that.

  For one thing, it wasn't until a few months ago until I realized that as a Spanish "near-native speaker", I do not really comprehend that questions and worries that a beginner might have. I keep finding it incredible to believe why some people have problems with the easiest type of grammar, or why people have such a hard time memorizing Spanish vocabulary. "Putting ourselves in our students' shoes" is something so crucial that most languages teachers forget. I bet that's also why most departments in the Foreign Language College assign foreign professors to teach only seniors. 

 

   In addition, I can to say I am seriously annoyed by the fact that Taiwanese students always "memorize" grammar and vocabulary. Languages aren't like History, we can't expect to get adept at it solely by memorizing rules and not using it often.  Also, several students struggle with syntax as they rely too much on straight-forward translated" pictionaries" (illustrated books in which there are many words in a foreign language and the Chinese translation beside it). In reality, experts in language-teaching in a broader sense investigate on the effects of this. In cases of TESOL studies, experts see that habits like these lead to students giving sentences like "My grandmother is ancient" or "My brother hits me with his paws". Errors like these  seem inevitable, and sadly most Taiwanese students still stick with the same ways of learning English, those "unhealthy ways" that make them misunderstand the usage of each word.