Found in Translation

I am getting ready for what is right around the corner right now.  While I have doggedly refused to be put on the family mobile phone plan, I see all our kids accessing amazing mobile apps, where they no longer dial but simply ask Siri to put a call through to each other.  As amazing as Siri is, the next step in the evolution is improvements in audio translation.  This is under away. Just as video gaming is becoming more and more realistic, and sometimes I have been fooled momentarily into thinking our kids are watching an NBA game instead of playing a computer game, this kind of emulation is going to make the language barrier a museum item. 

I am not good at learning a second language, I have tried French, Italian and Spanish and my head is not wired that way.  Even my mother tongue is more like a pigeon Punjabi and it is only since I started learning online since 1998 that my English has improved - rather than the street language I learned at school which used to be filled with filler words like "Right" and "You Know".

It is only in the last 17 years that I have become a better writer, and I am still learning how to be a better speaker, and with simple Google translation services I am enjoying discovering and communicating with people by translating from the mother language.  Many people speak the universal language of English and I strangely hear people being apologetic about the quality of their English - while I have tried to learn those languages and in trying, absolutely failed at it.

It is only a few years ago that a film came out called "Lost in Translation", hence the title of my buzz here "Found in Translation",  that film is far more than the language barrier, it is a relationship movie but the idea of "lost in translation" is still relevant. I am not afraid of misunderstanding, instead I embrace the excitement of trying to figure out something that has been written in non-English. 

This is the universality I now express as a great addition to my own learning journey.  This is most favourite discovery on joining BeBee.  I do check if who I am translating has an elementary level of English because just as I am exploring their language, I honour the reciprocation because there is a challenge in understanding - and I am not at all afraid of that challenge, instead I welcome it deeply.

The interesting thing for me in a year from now is how far I progress at recognizing other languages and I am betting that I will just be as woeful but I will not rule out unexpected progress.  As I move forward with what is found in translation, I am sure that there will be some form of change and the biggest change might just be finally getting a mobile phone - the argument against it will dissolve, especially if the apps for language improve. 

I am old enough to have read the story of the Tower of Babel many decades ago at school, and so all of this technological process is remarkable in comparison to the world I was born into.  The language that I most want to learn is not a foreign language or a computer language, it is the language of mathematics.  These are all elements on my learning journey and this journey has greatly been enhanced since I joined BeBee - and therefore I greatly welcome all of this.

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