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.

portfolio review

Ive been thinking all day what I could possibly blog about this week. I'm somewhat sick of Power and although I find it to be a good read I just want to put it to rest for now. Instead I thought I'd focus on what has been consuming my thoughts since 12 am yesterday...portfolio reviews (small text signifying the tension it causes in my brain)

After setting up my work, I was overwhelmed with a sense of satisfaction. even though I dont really like each of the pieces that I did, I felt accomplished with it all right there in front of me. That night I felt at ease and thought this review shouldn't be so bad, that was until I talked to Corrine, she seemed quite nervous about it and the more I talked to her the more nervous I became. Thats when the trouble started.

When I woke up the first thing I thought was, REVIEWS TODAY- great. As I got there around one I was able to see a few students go before me. they made me feel better because it didn't seem as stressful as I had thought...that is until it was my turn..DUN DUN DUNNNN...

I enjoyed doing the review and I'm usually pretty good about receiving criticism and although Krista warned us not to focus on the negative comments, I couldnt help myself. The biggest thing that bothered me was on my invisible cities collage piece, a piece that happens to be one of my favorites. I guess doing work in black and white anymore is bad? I really liked that part of my project because it was different from everyone else's, and I thought it looked friggen sweet. Well, apparently not.

Ahhhhh, now I feel much better, hopefully this will let me sleep peacefully tonight!

p.s. i like my collage

Name: _____________

A name contains more than just the letters it consists of.

I didnt always like my name. As a young girl I wanted a cooler name, a popular name. I then remember asking my mom why she named me Caroline. I found out it was after her twin sister. Although they were very different, she always admired her for her free spirit. She told me how much I reminded her of her sister, not only my looks but my personality as well. As I've gotten older I am frequently told how strangely alike we are. Right after my mom got married, in her young twenties, she found out while her sister was in New Zealand, she was in a terrible car accident. She never returned from that trip. After hearing I was named after my aunt and the amazing woman she was, I realized how special it was. From there on i never complained about my name, on the contrary I took a strong liking to it.

What I find so strange is that before I was even welcomed to this earth my name was picked out for me. So how is that I resemble her in so many ways yet came from my mom who is soo different from her. I think it is a gift from god. I know my mom misses her every day, but i think it is helpful to her that she still has a part of her sister with her but in me.

After reading Lucy and Power, we see how meaningful names are and how they reflect our personality in such odd ways. In Power, Omishto's name means "the one who watches." This completely reflects her personality. She is always very observant with all of her surroundings. She also watches Ama and her mother and observes the differences between them.

It is truly interesting to think about the meaning of a name and how one's name compares to their character, especially after seeing how strangely alike they can be.

Power

As I pulled this book out from under my bed I instantly got excited. I know you aren't supposed to judge a book by its cover--but i figure with all of us being young artists we all probably do. Anyways, this cover struck me right away, not just the picture on the art but the feel of the book itself. Maybe it's because all my previous but books were used and crappy but the feeling of a new book with an eerie photograph on the front just got me real excited to crack it open.

The first thing I did was read the back cover. I was taken back because the description/synopsis did not match the cover photo, however, it still looked like an interesting read.

After finishing the first chapter i thought to myself how cool this book was going to be. Ive never read a book with tribal people set in the jungle. I have always wondered what the lives of those people are like. It's so different from how we live our lives. Basically their world is the land of the tribe and they live much simpler than we do. I can never tell if i would love that or hate it.

As i got into the second chapter i realized the picture in my head didn't match up with what i was starting to read. In the first chapter i pictured Omishto in a loin cloth with tribal paint on her face. But then when i heard of her sister wearing her dress and her "stepfather" the life i thought they lived was apparently quite wrong. I'm still a little confused with their lifestyle and how civilized/not civilized it is. I'm very excited for what's to happen next and to have a better understanding of that part of the world.

A Girl with Kaleidoscope Eyes

Cellophane flowers of yellow and green
Towering over your head
Look for the girl with the sun in her eyes

And shes gone...

As I read this stanza from The beatles famous song Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, I realized it went right along with our reading Lucy. From this reoccurring vision of yellow and the feelings it provokes to this brightly burning sun in her eyes.

As we've noticed this color yellow in multiple medias in class, we see that it carries many different meanings. In Jaws, a sign of caution. In Girl Interrupted, a sense of insecurity, but again a warning for bad things to come. In The Yellow Wallpaper, a sign of anxiety. In Lucy its a vision of beauty (not to be confused with perfection.) It is clear to us that yellow is dominant in provoking a feeling, it's just not always used to provoke the same feeling.

The other part of this verse that is reminiscent of Lucy is this girl with the sun in her eyes. In the novel lucy really struggles with fitting in. She didn't fit in with her past and she doesn't fit in with her present. She experiences a sense of nostalgia when she first sees the sun in her new city. Not because its similar to what she's used to, but quite the opposite. She talks about the sun in her new setting and how it is faded as opposed to back at home where its vibrant and stingy, so stingy it makes the objects in its light curl at the edges.

Parallels like these allow us to make better sense of our readings and enjoy them more. And novels like Lucy allow us to really bite into this juicy text and use these connections to better analyze the reading.

*I thought it was also funny that this was a song done by a British band, in connection to the influence England had on Lucy's life as well as the lives of all the other people living in the West Indies during that time period.