Chapter 13. A 'clash' of cultures.
Hi there.
Tricia, of course I read russian poetry and sometimes even write it. And I like it. My favorite russian poet is Vladimir Mayakovsky. He was a real master of words. But I suppose you must have essential skills in russian to appreciate him, because it's absolutely no use to read him in translation. Though I believe it's true about all the poetry. I've found the poem You mentioned. It's realy accessible, in both means that it's easy for perception and it's easy to google it out. Unfortunately I haven't found any poetic sense in it. I'm so sorry. I think it's due to the difference in our cultures. And I'd like to talk about it tiday. I think it's the most key and simultaneously most painful question in modern world.
Tricia, yesrerday You told that You married the same man three times. I presume You just wanted to say that You had three weddings, because to marry the same man three times means that you married once then you divorsed, then maried the same man again, divorsed again and so on... :) There was a movie with such script. Speaking of several weddings it's nothing peculiar about it in our region. If the brige and the bridegroom are from different places (the town and the countryside for example) there are usually several weddings in each place. Because it's difficult to bring all the relatives together. Such weddings could last for weeks.
But what is more interesting is that You and Your husband are persons from the different cultures. Was it a problem for You for the first time? Did you face with some difficulties which had cultural basement? I didn't notice anything about that in Your blog and I think if You'd drop in a little bit on this topic it would be terrific.
Indeed, the cultural diversity is the most significant hurdle in learning foreign language. I've noticed that when I listen to my nationals speaking English it's fairly understandable for me. Unlike when I listen to foreigners. What do we learn mostly in this blog? The patterns! Patterns are deeply embedded into the culture. Similar cultures have similar patterns. When I read blog of Anita from Slovakia it was clearer to me than, say, blog of Chittisa from Thailand. Evidently, the reason is that my culture is a little bit closer to Slovakian than to Thai and the patterns I met in Anita's blog (like 'to lay down like a log') were more similar to russian patterns.
The other question is English that is getting the language of the international communication. Do the English patterns threaten the cultural diversity of other countries? Or they enrich other languages? May be vice versa, English is threatened by influence of plenty patterns from other cultures. Or again it's enriched with them? And may be as soon as English itself has so many accents already there will be 'international English' as well as American English or Australian English. Or there already is such an English? I have no answers to these questions at the moment. I would be glad if someone share his or her point of view with me on all those questions, which I appreciate are quite controversial.
Alex.
Comments
Hi, I've been following your blog since very beginning but it was Mayakovsky's name that finally made me write few lines. Perhaps you won't be surprised if I say that I used to think about Mayakovsky as a so called 'revolutionary poet', that obviously has its negative connotations. But up to the moment. Quite accidentlly I met across a book that totally changed my way of thinking about Mayakovsky. That is one of those you want to read once and again. 'Letters to Lili Brik (1917 – 1930)' came as a great surprise to me. This is a pure lyric poem although written in a narrative way, with fineness and comic flavour. Some letters, instead by Mayakovsky's name, are signed with poet's drawings of a cute, extremely faithful puppy dog. No wonder – Lili was the poet's greatest love (Am I right, Alex?). And though this only a translation (but a perfect one – believe me) I can just cite you: 'he was a real master of words'.
Hi Alex... your blog is really interesting and I'm very pleased to meet you: BBC Learning English is a fantastic community. I've been quite busy in the last two weeks and so I haven't been able to use Internet frequently. To make it up today I read all your past entries... I've been very interested in reading about your country, your passions, your poetic creations! :) I completely agree with you about your today topic on translation's problems. I think it's very hard(often impossible) to recreate in another language the effect produced by the author in the original version. And that is true for Poetry, Narrative, TheatreWorks. Anyway if we don't know a foreign language properly... maybe we can understand more reading a translation then the original work, can't we? I'm looking forward to reading your next post... Have a nice day! See you... Antonio
Hi Alex! I have googled the the poem mentioned by Tricia, which is not as good as your "sky is blue" in both the rhyme and meaning aspects. You are so skilled and talented in language.
Hi Alex . how are you ? Your new topic sounds very interesting for me . I agree with you that English learners from different nations have different patterns . For example jenny's blogs looked very easy and clear for me and they were familar for me . I think it must have many reasons: firstly it comes from different nation's patterns as you mentioned in your blog and it is most important reason , secondly it origins from method's of studing English in different countries , thirdly it depends on person's level in English learning . I think how much person be better in English his or her pattern's would be easy and also in right patterns in English . Althoug we have many idioms in "Persian" that is very similar to English one's and I don't know it is accidental or their origins is the same .At the end from my point of view it doesn't matter the origin of pattern but it's important that we can express our opinions and of course can communicate with different persons form other nationalities . And that's my purpose of improving my ability in English learning . Have fun bye for now !
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