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Indeed, some of the problems in translation are unfathomable and some
ridiculous.... For example: We come across the phrase 'Mother Earth'
all the time. It works in English and possibly other languages also but
not in Anishnabehmowin. Here's how it comes across...mother is ndodo -
my breast(tit) and earth is aki - earth. The two combined, literally,
say 'tit earth' Our mother 'is' our breast not our earth.... And the
beat goes on but in two different directions. The educational
institutions don't really give a damn about language instruction or
retention or recovery so long as the courses have strange words and
pronunciations and puts them into the dollars.<br>
<br>
Last evening, my step granddaughter was working on a paste up for her
homework. I asked what she was doing and she told me she needed to do
the paste up and then put the names of what she had pasted up in
OjiCree. The idea floored me. OjiCree is a combination of
Ojibway(Anishnabehmowin) and Cree(Mushkeegomowin). My granddaughter is
Anishinabeh mentally, linguistically, culturally and geographically
removed from OjiCree dialect, the idea of it being taught in schools in
our area is absolutely ridiculous. None of the speakers of the local
dialect would be able to speak with her or could they understand each
other. It is wasted time, money, space, resources, hope and human
potential, and is actually insulting in its level of ignorance(lack of
knowledge) of the people they are supposedly representing or trying to
save perhaps.<br>
<br>
Give our communities that same opportunity to do the job right...no
way. We are not educated enough, smart enough, aggressive enough,
cosmopolitan enough and definitely not certified enough.<br>
<br>
Dang, I guess I should never have started on this.... Here in my
Mother's community, mahjon = go away. In the community I was born it
means 'come here'.... Subtle, but we need to know this if any
language/culture program is to be successful. In another community
their word for 'horse' is our word for 'a big dog'....<br>
<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">-------
wahjeh
rolland nadjiwon</pre>
<br>
<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:Jimrem@AOL.COM">Jimrem@AOL.COM</a> wrote:
<blockquote cite="mid:ccb.493f92fd.372238d5@aol.com" type="cite">
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<div><font style="background-color: transparent;" color="#000000"
face="Arial" size="2">>>Even if the materials are culturally
appropriate, another problem<br>
with simply translating materials made for one language into another<br>
is that, if the languages are fairly closely related, it is all too<br>
easy to fail to translate completely.</font></div>
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<div><font face="Arial">It is also very easy to fall prey to slight
differences in dialects. In the language I work with a couple of
examples might be:</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">"Shake hands with me" in this dialect means
"Kiss me" is a closely related one. And "Give me some milk" in this
dialect in the other would mean "Give me a breast."</font></div>
<div> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">Jim</font></div>
</font><br>
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