A PLACE FOR SIDEWAYS TRAINS OF THOUGHT
I have always found Henry James to be a difficult writer to read. I have often tried but, honestly , apart from the Turn of the Screw, which is riveting, and Daisy Miller, I have never managed to get past any of his prologues. This is probably due to the fact that, being an interpreter... Continue Reading →
At the conferences I work at as a simultaneous interpreter, the audience can listen to a translation in one of the available languages through headphones connected to a receiver. The receiver has a volume control and a channel selection system. Sometimes, people who are not used to these things find them hard to use. They... Continue Reading →
Recently, I chanced upon a page in Wikipedia entitled “At sign”. It contains a long list of the names which @ has in various languages. It is quite amazing that one sign can have been interpreted in so many different ways. Here is a selection (some of the names listed are not reported as... Continue Reading →
Twice in my life, I have been at a meeting where a French person has stood up and said very seriously that it is obvious that French should be the global form of communication since French is the most logical of all languages. To this, I have a number of replies, but one will suffice:... Continue Reading →
Dear Sir, It is with great agony that I wish to bring to your kind notice the callousness shown by some employee of your deptt. What a way to begin a complaint! It certainly grabs my attention. This is a letter on the Indian Consumers Complaint Forum addressed to the passport office in Jaipur. And... Continue Reading →
Some people (I call them explaneedfuls) need an explanation for everything and often an explanation of the explanation as well. A long time ago I met one of them. I was asked to go to a TV studio in Italy to assist the host of a programme covering the Oscar awards ceremony. I thought I... Continue Reading →
And the long road ahead, I go to bed And the long road ahead, I go to bed Google Translate is amazing when it works. Unfortunately, it only works about half of the time. Even more unfortunately, unless you already know the languages you are trying to translate, there is no way of knowing... Continue Reading →
Zen Buddhism has a number of koans, the most famous of which is “What is the sound of one hand clapping?” Reflect long enough upon riddles like these and you may reach enlightenment, it is suggested. I would think that the same effect could be attained by meditating on section 509 (a) of the US... Continue Reading →
I have an irrational passion for phrase- books. Whenever I go to a country where I don't know the language I take along a phrasebook. I often take one with me even when I go to a country where I do speak the language. Sometimes in a foreign country I suddenly stop in the middle... Continue Reading →
The last time I went to Istanbul I had supper at Çiya Sofrasi, a restaurant which is by now famous (a long article about it appeared in the New Yorker and it has also been mentioned by the New York Times). It serves traditional food from distant Turkish provinces which is so different from the standard fare of Istanbul that the... Continue Reading →