Introduction
Eva Hoffman’s Lost in Translation is a story of a young woman explaining her endeavors after migrating to Canada with her family at the age of 13. She then moves to the United States and later immigrates to London. Lost in Translation by Nicola Mones is a story of a young American woman who tries to fit in China as a translator. In Lost In Translation by Eva Hoffman and Lost In Translation by Nicole Mones, both Hoffman and Mones successfully cultivate our appreciation for cultural differences by exposing the reader to foreign languages and terms, by challenging cultural stereotypes, and by showing commonalities between cultures.
What does translation mean and involve when it refers to processes of shuttling between cultures and idioms?
Hoffman’s identity is challenged every day during her stay in the United States. Language is a major indicator of our identity. She is faced with a major challenge because she is having trouble expressing herself in the new language. This is major threat to her identity since she has to keep coming up with new ideas to fit in which are a threat to her real identity. Hoffman admits that as a result of the cultural difference she is forced to become a serious person since she cannot express the comic situations around her due to the cultural difference (Hoffman 118). The Polish culture and the English culture were completely different during the time setting of the novel in the 1960’s with the Polish culture being extremely defined while the English culture was a little relaxed. In Poland, she felt a stronger sense of identity than in London. Language is a means to express culture and it the reason Hoffman cannot express her true emotions since she cannot relate to her new environment. The English words fail to relate to objects common to her and as a result, she finds herself unable to express herself.
In the book Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones, the young woman is pushed to try and fit in a foreign culture due to her distaste of her father’s racist behavior. Alice tries to fit in Beijing by mastering the Chinese language almost to perfection. She however still identifies with American concepts which are parts of her identity. For instance, she can still speak in English and at times, she dresses in short skirts a culture common among the white. She learns the Chinese culture including the different regions and the preferences by the Chinese culture. She searches comfort in the Chinese men in an attempt to understand the Chinese even more. Her American identity is, however, a constant shadow due to her not so perfect Chinese accent and most times the Chinese refer to her as an outsider (Mones 86). She goes to a greater length of getting herself a Chinese name and she introduces herself to the Chinese as Yulian since it helps in diminishing the cultural barrier. Yulian is a Chinese name that relates to the history of the Chinese fiction stories. Alice also learns how to ride on a bicycle like the Chinese women. For Mones to be able to identify with the Chinese, she has studied the Chinese culture and history and interacted with them for a long time. She understands the Chinese concepts for instance why an event would be named six-four; the Chinese mark events by numbers.
How does translation between cultures affect the shifting boundaries of identity?
Eva Hoffman expresses the boundary between the two cultures with the use of an emotive and highly descriptive reference to her journey to Canada and the strange surroundings on her arrival. She feels a complete stranger in Canada due to the strange culture and language in her new place of residence. She thinks her new American friends as aliens to her and she uses the words background to mean the source culture and foreground to refer to the target culture (Hoffman 108). She admits that when she is among her new friends she hardly grasps what they are saying. The English words are simply words to her which do not trigger any images to her head. The teachers also have to change her name to Eva a name that is in the English language and which is different from the Polish name Ewa. The difference in the name patterns between the two cultures is an indication of the boundary between the two cultures. Hoffman has to, eventually, forget her own culture so as to learn the English one. She closes the gap between the two cultures when she acknowledges the differences and bridges it by accepting and appreciating the English culture.
In the book Lost in Translation by Nicole Mones, the author expresses how understanding the Chinese culture and assimilating it makes her feel more Chinese than American. In fact, she admits she loves China, which is a genuine remark since her face lights up with excitement at this fact. When she explains the six- four event she understands it acknowledging how the Chinese loved to remember historic events with dates. Six-four represented July Fourth. During her meeting with the client, she notices that she has lost her identity as an American, and she actually has trouble pronouncing the word American (Mones 13).
Why and how does translation cultivate appreciation and respect for other ways of being human and other modes of communication?
Hoffman, at first, loses her identity during her first days in Canada before she eventually regains it. In school, her polish name Ewa becomes Americanized due to pronunciation challenges and is changed to Eva. At this point, she admits that the name makes her a stranger even to herself. Her experience in Canada can also not also be expressed in her native language since the objects and ideas do not exist in the Polish culture. She eventually decides that the language has no meaning in her new environment. This led to feelings of hopelessness, and her ability to express herself was lost, and so was her identity (Hoffman 160). At one time Hoffman cannot settle for a language to use for her diary and when she does so she uses the pronoun you instead of I, an indication that her identity has been eroded, and she does not know herself anymore.
Understanding the Chinese culture has assisted Alice in Mones book to be able to respect other cultures. The archeologist has an interesting task to be performed in which he believes he might find the remains of a famous archeologist which were lost in China. However, she appreciates his love for history. By identifying herself with the Chinese Alice shares in the hope by the Chinese to recover these remains since she understands what they would represent for the Chinese language since the white was a high profile figure in the history of men recognized among the Americans. The Chinese she encounters in their search are amazed at her masterly of both Chinese language and culture. She reciprocates to the Chinese accents with the same vigor as that of a fellow Chinese. The Chinese appreciate the fact that a western woman actually gets the Chinese culture (Mones 18). They express the distaste of the fact that most people do not get the Chinese culture. Alice appearance is undoubtedly one of an American with her red hair, but the Chinese culture is deeply rooted in her; the Chinese are intrigued by her ability to sit cross-legged a common practice among the Chinese (Mones 18). Parts of her western culture is however still part of her. When Jian’s mother asks her why she is yet to be married, she tries to explain that lots of women have children in the old age in America (Mones 28-29). The Chinese woman explains to her that in the Chinese culture childbearing was a task for the energetic young women.
What is that which makes cultural translation a productive site of decolonization?
Hoffman is faced with the task of translating the new culture to her own. The new words she is learning do not send vivid images to her head but are simply words. She explains how the Polish word for river sent images of a river flowing in its intensity and she could feel herself being immersed in the river when the word was mentioned (Hoffman 106). She, however, expresses that the English word river did not bring out the essence of a river as it lacked to bring out the ambiance that should come with the word river at least for her. She explains how in order to fully understand English words, she has to translate the concept in polish so that she can understand how the word should feel. She explains that translation involves transferring the audience into a whole new world. Eventually, Eva is forced to accept her identity in this new language. She identifies with the new surrounding, and this sets her free from her Polish culture. She is able to translate other cultures as well. Her Polish culture remains a point of reference through the entire process. It helps her appreciate culture as well as respect for other cultures.
Mones expresses how the white who visit Beijing love to visit places that are more westernized. She explains with dismay that most white people visit such places in order to forget that they are in a foreign culture (Mones 20). They would rather hang out in places which remind them of the American Culture. She refers to her American friends as being clingy to their western culture. At her client’s hotel they both decide to her delight of that they will ensure all their meals will be Chinese. When her clients hands a book of the Peking man in English she is rather disinterested since it has no details of his encounters in China which he asks the white to narrate to her. Her love for the Chinese had been cultivated by her stay in the China for over 14 years, and most people including the man at the American Express referred to her in her Chinese name Mo Ai-Li (Mones 23). The Chinese use numbers to describe major events, for example, the six four to describe an event that occurred on July 4th (Mones 11). The English are known to describe events with words instead.
Conclusion
In conclusion, translation requires a deep understanding of the language as well as the culture of the target language which results in respect and appreciation of both cultures in play. Cultural translation involves relating components in one culture and transferring them in the target culture. Cultural translation helps to bridge barriers between cultures, not to mention decolonization since exposure to other cultures enables one to be free from the dogmas of their own culture. It helps one understand the identity of others which helps them get rid of the notion that their own culture is dominant. Successful translation is one which is able to transfer every element in the original text to the target language. The original text and translated text should have similar a similar effect to the audience. A clear understanding of the cultures which requires respect and appreciation for both cultures to achieve this. Cultural translation enables people to break out of their cultural restrictions leading to decolonization. Hoffman demonstrates how translation is a process which involves a number of stages. Eva realizes that the polish and English culture are completely different. She later loses her identity in order to finally regain it when she accepts and appreciates the English culture in order to get a better grasp of the English language. Alice has mastered the Chinese culture to a finesse an achievement that has taken her over 14 years. She now fully understands, appreciates, respects and identifies with the Chinese culture. In the process, she has lost touch with her American Identity. She is no longer a slave to the western ways.
What does translation mean and involve when it refers to processes of shuttling between cultures and idioms?
What is that which makes cultural translation a productive site of decolonization?
How does translation between cultures affect the shifting boundaries of identity?
Why and how does translation cultivate appreciation and respect for other ways of being human and other modes of communication?
What is that which makes cultural translation a productive site of decolonization?
Conclusion
Works Cited
Hoffman, Eva. Lost in translation : a life in a new language. London: Minerva, 1991. Print.
Mones, Nicole. Lost in Translation. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2014. Print.
