Translating language is not the same as translating meaning
By VIOLET ZANZOT— vmzanzot@ucdavis.edu
Language is so funny to me, because it operates in such an all-consuming way, and yet most people ignore its nuances. If you really think about it, our very conception of thought is rooted in language. So much of the way we see the world is limited by the way we can explain it. The way we can explain it is largely through the ways in which we conceptualize and rationalize it, and there you have it: language has weaseled its way into all the nooks and crannies of our funky brains.
I think it would be a reasonable assumption to say that communication is complicated, given how intricate language is. Next time you fight with your mom, brother, girlfriend or boyfriend — just blame it on the frustrations of language because language’s relationship with meaning is not universal. That is to say, our words don’t always relay what we truly mean.
Just for the sake of making things more complicated, let’s now think about language translation. First, we have to translate our thoughts and feelings into words, but then we have to make those words make sense to someone who doesn’t speak our language. It’s an awful lot of work and it tends to get messed up along the way — therefore, meaning gets lost in the translation of language.
Now I am going to take it one more step further to say that globalization causes inaccurate translations of culture. I want to push the bounds of language to say that meaning is lost or miscalculated as it moves through temporal and spatial planes.
Unfortunately, I feel like this may sound convoluted; I tend to hate when people use big words just to sound smart, so I promise that’s not what I’m doing. I want to say that language builds culture. When language gets translated, often the words may be equal, but the meanings are not always the same. As the world becomes more interconnected and we share not just words but practices and ideas, sometimes we lose meaning in the process — or better yet, meaning changes in the process.
Let’s take Cinco de Mayo for instance, one of America’s favorite drinking holidays. It’s a great day to make fast friends with salt and lime. But what does it mean to people today, and what did it mean when it became a holiday? Who is allowed to celebrate, and does it mean different things to the different people who do so?
Let’s start with what I’ve learned Cinco de Mayo is not. It is not the “Mexican Fourth of July.” It is not necessarily a day deeply ingrained in the culture of the Mexican people. I certainly cannot speak for the importance of a cultural holiday of a culture I am not a part of.
The most I can say is that in my research I have learned that the day is an “American” holiday created by Latinos in California in the mid-19th century, in order to celebrate the fight against France and the Confederacy. These battles represented a struggle for democratic and social freedom against oppression and slavery. Over time, for many people, Cinco de Mayo has instead become a day to eat tacos and drink margaritas.
Personally, I have never aspired to be the dictator of fun — I have no intention of saying people can not celebrate the day. I do think it serves as a timely demonstration of the point I am trying to make; As cultures move about the globe and across time, things can get lost in translation.
We may not know why people celebrate holidays. In fact, we may celebrate them for our very own reasons all together. This is because holidays and traditions no longer look the way they did. The people at the parties may not dance the same way. They become evolutions, adaptations or variants of what existed or may even still exist. As we live in an ever-mixing amalgamation of people, our cultures mix in suit.
Written by: Violet Zanzot— vmzanzot@ucdavis.edu
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