This is exactly where I feel the translation of a person will be lost. Lost in the editing actually. You can't edit yourself during conversation.
One of the things I liked about my struggling attempts to learn to read Japanese was the fact that you can edit yourself in conversation; you can sort of watch how the other person is possibly reacting to where they think the sentence is going, and then change the verb, change the declension or the politeness level or the tense, and put a different spin on everything that came before it.
I think that we edit in different ways in real life. I don't tend to edit for clever, because I worked for many, many years with andpuff, and you don't get anyone who's more off-the-cuff clever than she is.
I do tend to edit for comprehension, and sometimes for boredom level -- when I'm not in that hyper-focused over-excited phase, which would more correctly be called monologue than dialogue. Speaking with passion is fine -- but when the person you're speaking to is clearly not getting the first attempt at translating that passion into something clear, it's fairly easy to switch analogies, metaphors, or examples. It's a more fluid way of editing, in that you can't retract what you said, or delete it entirely -- but you can revise it after the fact by shoring it up or make it sharper, where necessary.
And I did get your email, and am horribly behind in email, sorry :/.
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2004-12-16 12:56 am (UTC)One of the things I liked about my struggling attempts to learn to read Japanese was the fact that you can edit yourself in conversation; you can sort of watch how the other person is possibly reacting to where they think the sentence is going, and then change the verb, change the declension or the politeness level or the tense, and put a different spin on everything that came before it.
I think that we edit in different ways in real life. I don't tend to edit for clever, because I worked for many, many years with
I do tend to edit for comprehension, and sometimes for boredom level -- when I'm not in that hyper-focused over-excited phase, which would more correctly be called monologue than dialogue. Speaking with passion is fine -- but when the person you're speaking to is clearly not getting the first attempt at translating that passion into something clear, it's fairly easy to switch analogies, metaphors, or examples. It's a more fluid way of editing, in that you can't retract what you said, or delete it entirely -- but you can revise it after the fact by shoring it up or make it sharper, where necessary.
And I did get your email, and am horribly behind in email, sorry :/.