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Showing posts from June, 2016

Is literal translation between languages even possible?

I wonder how many of you have ever learned another language. I have had the privilege and the pleasure to study a few by now (other than English). And the most fascinating and difficult part, once you get your mind and tongue around pronunciation) is dealing with idioms. Idioms are words or expressions which are more or less unique to a language and/or culture, making them difficult to understand and translate into or from another language. Three years ago, one of my housemates, who is from South America, asked me about an expression she had overheard: 'Speak of the devil!'