Lost in Translation

If you've ever traveled to a foreign country where the spoken language isn't English, you know exactly what lost in translation means. Being to countries such as Mexico, France, Greece, Germany, and China, I've had this experience multiple times. Just thinking of these words evokes an immense feeling of frustration.

This clip from the movie Lost in Translation shows how frustrating and confusing it can be to try to communicate with people who don't speak your language. The movie is set in Japan and although English is not the main language of many countries throughout the world, choosing a county like Japan really drives in the aggravation of being lost in translation. Of all the countries I've traveled to, being in China was by far the hardest to adapt to. Like Japan, and other eastern civilizations, the Chinese language is extremely different from English and being so far away from English speaking countries it is not really a necessity to know. In contrast, when you travel to Europe almost everyone knows some bit of English because of tourism and their proximity to English speaking countries.

In the play Translations, Sarah has a speech defect making it difficult for her to communicate with others. Because she doesn't like sounding different, she communicates with hand gestures. Although people don't always know what she is trying to say at first, they usually figure it out within a couple guesses.

This made me think of how I act in foreign countries when I am trying to communicate with someone who speaks another language. Hand gestures are universal, allowing someone who speaks a language as different as Chinese to understand you. Although Sarah does not like to use her words, she still manages to communicate with others by using gestures.

So now whenever you find yourself lost in translation forget mom's advice of "using your words" and start using your hands, it is much more effective and saves you the aggravation.