Learning a Language Not Spoken by a Community

I was reading today about Irish or Gaelic which is an endangered language (yes, I realize that the story came up because it’s St. Patrick’s day). It struck me that it is a somewhat different bilingual situation from that which we find here in the U.S.– although it might be parallel to taking a foreign language in high school or college. What’s different here is that Irish is required in the Irish school system and that it is Ireland’s official language. Yet, there are fewer and fewer people who speak it.

Translation– the other side of the tapestry

That’s what Cervantes is to have have expressed. And I think it provides a nice mental picture of translation.

A recent story in the Mercury News discusses the need for qualified translators in the Los Angeles court system. At the same time a recent blog posted a reaction to another blog soliciting translation of the Mexican firearms statute presumably by untrained translators. Can bilinguals who have no training in translation accurately translate? Does it matter what they’re translating and who will read it? Is translation really that hard?

Bicultural Celebrations

We celebrated Christmas with my husband’s family this year which probably makes me yearn to be with my family. I got to reminiscing about the foods that were part of our celebrations growing up. At Christmas we always had tamales, turkey and tamales, ham and tamales– which I see as sort of a blend of cultures. My aunt makes a terrific turkey stuffed with the stuffing for “chiles en nogada.” My mom made a decidedly American cornbread & sausage stuffing. But, of course we always had tamales. At new years buñelos are the tradition (and as soon as I figure out how to insert the tilde in wordpress I will– and I’ll fix my name too–aha!). Anyway, I guess I’m in the food mood and would love to hear about other blended traditions.