<div style="text-align: center; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">===========================================<br>L O W L A N D S - L - 06 July 2009 - Volume 03<br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><span style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);"><a href="mailto:lowlands@lowlands-l.net">lowlands@lowlands-l.net</a> - <a href="http://lowlands-l.net/">http://lowlands-l.net/</a></span><br style="color: rgb(153, 153, 153);">
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===========================================<br></div><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">From: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI"><span class="gD" style="color: rgb(0, 104, 28);">Hellinckx Luc</span> <span class="go"><<a href="mailto:luc.hellinckx@gmail.com">luc.hellinckx@gmail.com</a>></span></span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Subject: </span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" class="gI">LL-L "Language politics"<br><br></span><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Beste Lowlanders,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">Just read this article in the NY Times, written by Daniel Hamermesh, a labour economist from the University of Texas.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Title: How the Market Influences What Language You Read In. Quite disturbing really, but realistic nonetheless...here goes:</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<div style="margin-left: 40px; font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">My Dutch friends tell me that they read foreign (non-Dutch) novels that are translated into English rather than into Dutch.<br>
Their English is very good, but their Dutch is clearly better. So, I ask, why read in English?<br>
Their answer is simple: take a book originally in Swedish, like Stieg
Larsson’s wonderful Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. If somebody translates
it into Dutch, the relatively small number of Dutch-speakers means that
the market for the translation will be much smaller — and the royalties
and profits smaller too — than the market for an English translation.<br>
These smaller returns attract translators who are not as good as those
attracted into translating a book into English; the supply curve of
translators is upward-sloping.<br>
My friends say they would rather read a good translation into a
language they know well, but not perfectly, than a mediocre translation
into their native language.<br></div>
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">The author is of Jewish descent and holds teaching positions in both
Rotterdam and Maastricht; I guess he knows fairly well what he's
talking about. Don't want to take a position in this polemic, but fact
is that the 58 comments he received so far were all well worth reading.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<a style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" href="http://tinyurl.com/moq2so" target="_blank">http://tinyurl.com/moq2so</a><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Question: If Dutch is your native language, would you rather read a mediocre translation in Dutch than a good one in English?</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Detail: Stieg Larsson's book "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" is
titled "Mannen die vrouwen haten" in Dutch, "Men who hate women", and
something similar in Swedish. The English (or American?) publisher was
apparently taken aback by the original title.</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
<br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
Kind greetings,</span><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><font style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;" color="#888888">
<br>
Luc Hellinckx, Halle</font><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;"><br style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif;">
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