Month: September 2021

This story is about a recent dream I had, which still lingers in my brain in vivid, jewel-like tones. The events of the dream were simple and unfolded quickly within a luxurious, velvety hotel room. My three friends and I booked a room for a few nights vacation (“a staycation” in the city where we reside) during the COVID-19 pandemic. An incredibly exquisite buffet dinner was served on an endlessly long mahogany table in our room. I reenacted my account of this dinner event and the seemingly conscientious decisions made during the meal. I then briefly reflected on what this dream could have meant.    

The full transcript is under the cut. I used speechnotes as my voice-to-text generator.

After viewing Prof. Lera Borditsky’s SAR lecture, I found myself relating to her insight and findings. My reflections stem from my lived experiences and the nature of my cultural upbringing and social surroundings. I grew up in a bilingual English and Cantonese speaking household, and I have consistently studied a number of foreign languages as a child and throughout my academic career. I would say that I had a profound interest in learning languages, and was fascinated by the different perceptions and windows of thought that seemed to change across different languages. People from different cultures and speaking different languages experience the world and distinguish their feelings differently. I likened it to having various levels of a sensory palate.  

I once had a teacher who told me that language is the eye to culture. This notion was ingrained in my memory since then, and I was humbled by the many experiences, and to relive the world through these various perspectives. Not only are beliefs, customs, traditions, and history revealed through language and etymology, but there are also the metaphors of life that are only understood by that culture. I often codeswitch between English and Cantonese, and I would often wonder why some words and expressions cannot be translated. I would wonder why a word with a positive connotation in one language would have a negative connotation in another, and why some words have “hidden meanings” and associations unbeknownst to the learner. I also struggled with learning languages with grammatical gender – as Prof. Borditsky’s best explained, there is no rhyme or reason for the assignation of these genders. I had to rely on my memory in French and Spanish to understand the lack of pattern in grammatical genders, which is a concept that does not exist in the languages I spoke.  

As a language learner and writer who often dealt with translated poetry and prose, the lost in translation phenomenon is truly intriguing to me. I found the case of translating creative writing to be severely affected by mistranslations. The beauty, tenacity, and visceral-ness of a poem or literature in one language, cannot easily be captured by a translation in another. The motives, attitude, and personality of a character and their actions might be perceived differently in another language. These inconsistencies and the notion that we perceive the world through the language could cause inaccuracies in the piece of work. It might cause frustration for the original author, translator, and reader, because the piece, no matter how well translated, may have some particular aspects, sometimes in detail, and sometimes coming in rippling waves, lost in between the lines of language. Where does this lost meaning go, shadowed by the translation?

Bag Contents (from left to right, top down)

Line 1: agenda, three notebooks, black gel pen, scrapbook, three pouches, butterfly pea flower lemon tea leaves, osmanthus pear tea leaves 

Line 2: two masks, packet of tissues, alcohol swabs, hand sanitizer, spray bottle of isopropyl alcohol, mandarin rind and rosemary handcream, maison marigela eau de toilette (under the lemon tree), tinted lip balm, claw hairclip, zippered pouch 

Line 3: cooling body wipes, antibacterial handwipes, isopropyl alcohol wipes, painkillers, Vaseline, bandaids, geranium leaf hand wash, grapefuit rind body lotion, compact mirror, Airpods, coin purse, iPhone X, scrunchie, wallet, resusable bag 

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