One of my classes involves copious amounts of translation from old italian (italiano antico) to modern italian. It's very interesting stuff, and throws in sharp relief the lack of Latin in my life. I actually can't wait to start learning Latin, just because it helps so much with deciphering older words in Italian.
I like translating things; there's a certain art and dexterity with words that's required of it. It's also gratifying to turn something half-incomprehensible into something readable and understandable. I also think that it's giving me a new perspective on the language, which is something I will always appreciate-- there is an amazing amount of thought that goes into translating something properly, that I hadn't thought of previously.
An unfortunate side effect of this, however, is that my brain is stuck somewhere between Italian and English, and this results in a very interesting speech and language style. I find in conversation the Italian word comes to me first, and I have to retranslate. One can only hope that this is just another step on the road to fluency.
Spero di si.
No comments:
Post a Comment