Saturday, October 18, 2008

Mini-Challenge, There's Something About Translation

I'll not-so-boldly go where I've only gone once or twice before. One of the challenges for the 24 Hour Readathon is to spend an hour reading a book in a foreign language. The "foreign" being a language that is not your first language. I haven't had instruction in French in about eleven-and-a-half years. So it's a real stretch that I can even "read" it at all. But I can pick at it. And I shall.

I am going with the Bible--in French--and I'll be reading from John or Jean as the case may be. :)

Running commentary:

Cool. I like the way this sounds.
Bother. I knew it was to good to last. by verse three I'm a bit lost.
Lumiere. :) Just had to smile.
Okay, I'm only getting a phrase now and then. But I can pick out a word or two and then fill in the blanks with what I remember from English.
And I'm completely lost again by verse 15.
And by verse twenty, I'm back in the game. I can so translate "Moi, je ne suis pas le Christ." Why can't they all be that simple?
I'm glad some words lend easy to translation "la sandale"
This is tougher than I thought.

On to chapter two...

Cool. I can pick out a phrase or two. "...la mere de Jesus lui dit: Ils n'ont pas de vin"
Picked out this. le maître d'hôtel. :)
Thought this was a bit funny. "il les chassa tous hors du temple" Though not really :)
And then I got really lost again.

On to chapter three...

I recognize some of this.
But not that much. And not that often.
Fortunately it has words like "la vie eternelle"

On to chapter four...

"avec les Samaritains"
I like the more simple conversations. Like the one between Jesus and this woman. I was actually able to read most of the words in the sentence. "La femme répondit et dit: Je n'ai pas de mari. Jésus lui dit: Tu as bien dit: Je n'ai pas de mari;car tu as eu cinq maris, et celui que tu as maintenant n'est pas ton mari; en cela tu as dit vrai. La femme lui dit: Seigneur, je vois que tu es un prophète."

And that about does it for my hour.



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4 comments:

Nise' said...

I am impressed that you are attempting to read the Bible in French! I can only remember not so nice phrases in Spanish, Italian and Polish.

Stephanie said...

Good for you! It's so rare to hear of someone delving into a foreign language for enjoyment. My dh is Belgian, so we switch to French for private conversations and when we don't want my 6 year old to know what we're talking about. ;) I need to get back into book-work though, my grammar and vocabulary (vocab especially, ack) need help. I did pick up one of the children's books I recently bought and started translating that. It's a start.

Yay for you! I'm so happy! (The Bible is a lot prettier in French, I think. But everything is prettier in French, I might be biased. ;)

Lenore Appelhans said...

What a fun idea! Though I would have gone with something a lot simpler than the Bible.

Sarah Dillon said...

Well done for participating in the language mini-challenge Becky! Hope you had fun :)

Sarah (aka the naked translator)