My Blog

language, in general, is very fascinating.  it unites a nation, but at the same time, it can also ruin relationships. there have been many instances when a language muddles the meaning of what the speaker intended to say simply because the speaker gets lost in the translation of a language not his/her own.  the following are examples, which do not necessarily ruin relationships but drive my point that language can send the wrong message…

• last year, i tutored a korean student who later became my very good friend.  in one of our sessions, i told her that she must be careful in pronouncing breath and breathe.  i taught her that the former is a noun and the latter a verb.  assuring me that she understood, she proudly said, "oh, i love to eat chicken breath."  toink…
• in another session with another tutee, we were looking at a picture of a horse on our text book.  i asked my tutee if he had ever ridden one, and he said, "i have never ridden a whore."  i couldn’t resist it; i had to ask, "are you sure?"
• a few years ago, i received an invitation to a graduation recital from a former student.  i was amused to see that the invitation card she gave me had a bold line that reads, "your present is my pleasure."  a misprint?  hmmmm…
• a good friend of mine told this story and he swore that this really happened to him and to the other seminarians.  according to my friend, they attended some kind of an acting workshop.  their facilitator instructed them to act out whatever thing he said.  the instructor said, "tree" and all of them stood still, arms outstretched, pretending to be trees.  the instructor said, "worm" and all of them wriggled on the floor.  then suddenly, the instructor shouted, "langgam."  other participants started crawling.  guess what?  my friend and the other seminarians from visayas started to flap their hands as hard as they could, desperate to act like birds.  the instructor burst into a big laugh and asked, "Bisaya kayo ano?"  Innocently, my friend asked, "How did you know sir?  Is it because of how we walk?’
• The other day, I sat in the Filipino class where I will be doing my teaching assistantship in.  The students are Filipino-Americans whose knowledge of the Filipino language is almost zero, so the teacher was kind enough to do a lot of translation.  while the teacher was talking in english, i played in my head the translation of what he was saying.  his example was, "the apple is red."  in my mind, i translated it to "pula ang mansanas."  then the teacher said, "the apple is rich in iron."  automatically, what registered in my head is the translation: "ang mansanas ay mayaman sa bakal."  i sensed something wrong with my sentense.  true enough, i literally translated "iron" to "bakal."  boy was i glad i didn’t say it loud.