Lost in Translation.......

All living beings need to communicate with one another, whether it be by signs or language. The power of the verbal communication is all powerful as behind this we have a voice. Yes, in scientific terms as we explore physics we find that talk has real torque. In fact we can question the saying , " the pen is mightier than the sword " and change it to ," verbal speech is mightier than the sword" . Who knows this better than our politicians?  Can anyone forget the power behind the deep lucid tones of Barack Obama as he sailed into the white house with his talk of change. The same can be said of many leaders from Julius Caesar to Martin Luther King, and even the notorious Adolf Hitler. All these leaders may have had different purposes but they all had one thing in common; they knew and used wisely the power behind their words to inspire a nation. However, sometimes language can be misinterpreted and in effect can get lost in translation....

We live in a world of multitude of creeds, colors, races, religions, cultures and of course languages. Thus the simple act of communication involves overcoming many barriers and when we fail to do so we are faced with the consequences. Connotations can often seriously affect our understanding of the truth. Many court trials of rape cases have stalled with the accused claiming innocence, " I misinterpreted her signals, I really thought no meant yes ". In fact a spade is not always a spade, it depends on your view points. In the war in Iraq the men trying to defend their country from US invasion were called the insurgents or terrorists by the US when technically speaking they could be described as freedom fighters. There are obviously powerful political connotations associated by our choice of words. Often, name calling can be hurtful and racist when used out of context. For example calling a person from New York a New Yorker is neither racist or insulting to the said person, however a person of Pakistani origin being sneer fully called a Paki is taken as a derogatory term which incites hate and racial prejudice. We need to be careful in our choice of words as sometimes between cultures the same word can hold two very different meanings. Again there are far too many examples to mention but one that comes to mind is the word rubber. In anglicized English this means an eraser while in American English it means a condom and of course wrongful usage can have unintended meanings. However, truth is often an arbitrary term and is often based on view point and interpretation. Language is like a genetic code, remove one letter or codon and the meaning changes. Imagine sending a text which reads "I am now leaving" and then mistyping to "I am not leaving."

But in the world of mass communication across the globe at lightening speed millions have been able to overcome these barriers and language has often become universal especially among the young and those young at heart. So our levels of understanding have increased leaving less scope for ambiguity. And we can take heart in this. Otherwise we would really be lost in translation.........