Quote:
Originally Posted by Luffy
In between reading books and learning to play Imagine on my electric piano, I'm trying my hand at learning the language in which the Ramayana is written. The version of the book that concerns me is written not in Sanskrit, but in a more regional language called Awadhi.
I have a copy of the book and in it the stanzas are also written in the roman letter. I have a vague aim of being fluent enough to do the arath. The arath is the act of translating, (in a gathering where people sing the verses) and explaining the stanzas. If I succeed, I might be the best one at it, since the other translators do only the strict minimum and offer no embellishment. I intend to use my knowledge of quotes and of western history in my repertoire. It's a dying "art", and it's likelier I'd get fed up halfway.
I know a version of French Creole that is unique to my country (Mauritius), and is, in fact, my mother tongue. I also know hindi (I'm of Indian stock) and French. English is the only language in which I read, however.
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That is interesting! I really only read and speak English. However, I can read a little Spanish better than I can speak it and definitely better than I can understand it when it is spoken to me.
The funny thing is that English was kind of forced on New Orleans, in a way. My mother remembers her grandmother and her grandmother's cousins speaking to each other in French when they didn't want the kids to know what they were saying because my mother and her generation weren't allowed to speak French in school and it wasn't taught. When I was in school, you only had two years of a foreign language in High School. I think French and Spanish were the only choices. I chose Spanish because I thought that would be easier. Now there are "French immersion" schools everywhere. My little nephew and my cousin's kids go to French immersion schools. The nephew is five and knows all his numbers in French.
I really need to do something with the old books but am not sure where to donate them but they need to be cared for. There is one from 1839 that is a huge book in German but is falling apart a bit.
The most interesting conundrum I've found regarding translation is an old letter to my great-grandmother from her Swiss grandmother (my great-great-great). It is written in French. By someone whose first language was German. In 19th century handwriting. Neither my teenage cousin who had been in French immersion or her French teacher could translate it properly. *sigh*