I: Schizophrenia
few months ago I was reading the autobiography of the translator Gregory Rabassa ( If This Be Treason, translation and Its dyscontents . New Directions Books, New York, 2005) and was more delighted when the fine prose Rabassa, its subtle humor and intimate understanding of the relationship between grammar and idiosyncrasies of each culture, I came across a paragraph that made me scratch my head and think, unfairly, "Mr. Gregory is already senile." According to American scholar (superb translator Cortázar, García Márquez, Lezama Lima, Vargas Llosa and other classic boom ), "has asserted that a person who has lost his speech after a stroke can still communicate in a language
foreign have learned because it is hosted on a different portion of his brain. " In that statement, Rabassa clings to reflect, very poetically, a translator, going from one language to another, also becomes "a different person, operating in a different part of the brain." Thus, "the poor translator must not only walk back and forth between two languages, but, if he is worthy of his calling, must also be moved between two beings, with all the risks of induced schizophrenia." the outset, and since I make my living as a translator, I found a beautiful image, but then, to think more coolly, I gave the impression that it was a pseudo-scientific statement used to beautify the nobility of the profession. Certainly the difference is remarkable what can be said and how you can say in one language to another, but from there to feel "other being" there is a great distance. Lo de recover speech in a language learned after the mother tongue seemed, at that time, an assumption made by someone who knows a lot of languages, but that did not seem to be very aware of anatomy and physiology. So I thought, innocently.
II: Two months after
When the footballer Salvador Cabanas suffered the aggression that we know originally doctors reported that the bullet had been lodged in the left lobe of the brain. When the player regaining consciousness, they say, his first words were in Guarani. Process In an interview, Chief of Neurology Service Hospital de La Raza, Miguel Ángel Sandoval said that, if in fact the bullet had been in the left hemisphere (because then it turned out that was on the other side), and the first language was English Cabañas, it made sense that his first words were in which, presumably, would be their second language, as this would be stored in the right hemisphere of the brain.
Moreover, the expansion of the doctor, "if I damage the h
left brain emisferio I lose English, but I can keep the secondary language that is English." Of course, the question of which is the first language of cabins left in the dark now "The ball moved, but the point remains: if you lose your original language, there is always the possibility (in case of brain damage is not total, but located on the left side) to be able to communicate in a second language "a very eloquent argument for learning another language," says Gregory Rabassa. Overall, I was in error, and what I thought was poetic fantasy come true physiological. In fact, there are medical studies that indicate that parts of the brain that are activated by speaking the language are different from those we use to speak in a language learned after 7 years. Daniela Perani et al. indicate that "some areas the brain are shaped by early exposure to language, and are not necessarily triggered by processing a second language which can (the individual) have been exposed for a limited time later in life. " III: Doctor mirabilis
When Roger Bacon at Oxford back in the thirteenth century, realized that education then was a serious flaw: the teachers did not read the ancient philosophers in their original but only in translation, since no one was interested in learning Greek. The same thing happened with the Scriptures: the sacred texts were known only in translations, in the eyes Bacon, left much to wish
r. This indolence was reflected in other aspects of education at the time, because the prevailing scholasticism was based more on tradition and the views expressed by authorities appealed to the observation of natural phenomena and original research. So, Roger Bacon gotten down, first, the learning of languages: Arabic to understand the scientific literature produced in Islamic nations, the Greek approach to Aristotle, a key figure in the shaping of Christianity at the time, and Hebrew to hear firsthand the biblical texts. According to the Jewish Encyclopedia before Bacon was no more than three Christian theologians who had read the Bible in its original text and the English philosopher anticipated the current Hebrew scholar would come to Europe 200 years later. Brother William of Baskerville, a character from The Name of the Rose , crying "Bacon was right when he said that the first duty of the scholar is studying languages!". In the Middle Ages, the study of languages \u200b\u200bwas a utility rather academic. In the contemporary world, it is already a cliché to speak of the need to speak a language other than one's own (and a language that we fall short). For reasons of professional, college all respect should speak at least English, in addition to English. Now, thanks to modern brain scanning techniques, learning a second language is presented also as a kind of insurance, a guarantee for future communication, just in case.
This column (and many others) are in hypertext on the web: www.ErnestoCortes.com. I read: Ernesto@CuerdaCueroyCanto.com. The new name: www.twitter.com / ErnestoCortes.
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