Le mot juste en anglais

Àlvaro Mira - linguist of the month of May 2018

Our linguist of the month was chosen following a chance encounter I had with him on a recent visit to Barcelona. Àlvaro works as a tour guide at Gran Teatre del Liceu (Opera House of Barcelona), which is situated on the Rambla, and has served as an arts center and one of the cultural landmarks of the city since 1847. The Opera House provides excellent tours of its magnificent buildings for groups and individuals, in Catalan, Spanish, English and French. When I went with my wife to the Opera House to book a tour, I was greeted by Alvaro, and I was immediately impressed with the high standard of his spoken English. In conversation with him, I learned about his love of languages, developed at an early age, and his impressive CV, which includes a stint of study at the Université de Lyon 2.

Although only 21 years old, Alvaro Mira has acquired a solid knowledge of Spanish, English and French (in addition to his mother-tongue, Catalan) and I predict a very successful career for him in some field of language.

Jonathan G.

J.G.:  Where were you born and which language did you speak at home.

A.M.: I was born in Barcelona and spoke Catalan to my parents and Spanish to my grandparents and great aunt.

J.G.:  At what age was your first exposure to another language?

A.M.: At the age of 3 we were taught some basic English vocabulary at school, but it was only at the age of 12 that serious instruction was provided, and I complemented my English studies with private lessons.

J.G.: What motivated you to study English so seriously at that age?

A.M.: Initially my strong interest in English was triggered by the fact that I was a fan of Bruno Mars, Joe Jonas and other American artists, but after I outgrew that stage, my love of English remained.

J.G.:  Were you able to practice your English outside of Spain?

A.M.: Yes, after hosting a Swedish student in Barcelona, I travelled to Forsheda, Sweden in 2013 and again in 2014, where I was a guest student for more than a week each time. My common language with my Swedish guest and then with my Swedish hosts was English. Between the two visits I gained a First Certificate in English from the University of Cambridge. I did two English immersion stints in California with Cultural Homestay International. That involved taking classes in the mornings and engaging in social activities in the afternoons. Also, I got to speak English with the American host family I was living with. It is so much easier to learn a language when you are having fun. Later I tutored students aged 12-18 in English.

J.G.:  How did you acquire your fluency in French?

A.M.: I found French to be relatively easy when I studied it in high school. This was partly due to the common roots of Catalan and French, which make French closer to Catalan in some respects than French is to Spanish. But to build on my basic knowledge, I was applied for and was awarded an Erasmus Scholarship to study French-Spanish translation and Grammaire contrastive pour hispanophones.  I am currently studying English and French Translation and Interpreting.

J.G.:  What stage have you reached in your studies and what do you have planned?

A.M.: Since 2015 I have been pursuing a Bachelor’s Degree in Translation and Interpreting in English and French at Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona. Once I obtain the degree, I plan to do a Masters, but I have not yet decided in exactly which field. I find legal translation and multimedia translation particularly interesting, although interpreting is something I am very comfortable doing too.

J.G.:  What do you think of Machine Translation?

A.M.: I do not believe that it will ever replace humans, given the subtleties and nuances of each language and the need to bridge them. It is true that from the point of view of a translator, Machine Translation may be seen as a work tool. However, it should never be considered as the only means for translation.

J.G.:  In a recent edition of The Economist, there is an article on Catalonia, which ends with the words: “What is clearer is that Catalan society remains split down the middle.” Do you believe that this situation has a language component to it? Would the situation be worse if Catalan did not serve as a unifying force between both camps of Catalans?

A.M.: Recent studies have proven that those who have Catalan as a mother tongue have a greater propensity to seek independence from Spain than those who do not have Catalan as a mother tongue. As far as I am concerned, I would like to see the Catalan language as a tool for everyone, not just for a few.  I think everyone should be able to use both languages irrespective of their origin or political orientation.

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Perception and Deception, A Mind-Opening Journey Across Culture by Joe Lurie

L'auteur : Joe Lurie Creative Consulting and Coaching Across Cultures, Communicating across Cultures

PerceptionAndDeception.com  CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (May 8, 2015)

reviewed by : Donna Scott, Los Angeles

One of the pleasures of reading literature is the discovery of how much alike we humans are in our universal needs, desires and fears; consider the writer's mantra: the more specific you make it, the more universal it is. However, messages from the news and social media, TV and movies seem to belie such shared universality. Citizens of a world tied together in a global economy, across a planet whose borders are disappearing, seem to be locked in a death-grip of cultural identity crises that doesn't seem to be loosening anytime soon.

Arguably, no education is complete without the learning of cross-cultural communication skills. The business of cross-cultural studies does indeed exist, fulfilling the necessity for understanding the niceties of cultural differences as nuanced as the focus of one's eyes during a conversation. Joe Lurie is a cross-cultural trainer who has spent decades studying, training, speaking and observing these intricacies. He serves as Director Emeritus of the University of California, Berkeley's International House, is a former Peace Corps volunteer in Kenya, where he says it all began for him, and has directed programs in France, Kenya, and Ghana for the School for International Training.

He has written an aptly titled book: Perception and Deception, A Mind Opening Journey Across Cultures. A slim book of just six chapters, it is crammed with anecdotes and proverbs to prove his point that "seeing can often be deceiving," and "that by relying on one's experiences and filters, a perception can often be a deception."

In his first chapter, Lurie goes back to his first immersion in the culture of Kenyans during his beginning days as a volunteer of with the Peace Corps. After hosting dinner at his house for three African friends, he was perplexed that not only did they not thank him after an evening of food and lively conversation, but they also didn't reciprocate his hospitality. He later discovered that Kenyans' doors are always open and invitations weren't considered necessary. Joe also learned he was mistaken in asking if they would like something to eat or drink (always declined by the guest), only to discover Kenyan guests never wanted to appear greedy, so food and drink should automatically be served by the host.

A young African would address even a newly introduced female elder as grandma out of respect. If a teenager in this youth obsessed Western culture presumed to call a strange older woman grandma, he would likely be met with indignation for daring such a put-down.

The University of California, Berkeley's International House, a residential and program center for students from around the world, promoting intercultural experiences and leadership skills, is the setting for many of Lurie's anecdotes. Their alumni include ambassadors, political leaders, royal families, Nobel Laureates and UN staff and officials.

For the past 85 years many young people were given their first exposure to people not only outside their own cultures, but also beyond the barrier of their socio-economic classes. A Mexican student whose father swept floors in a shoe factory had never before mingled with people rich enough to discuss ski trips to Switzerland and beach houses; Turkish and Armenian students socialized, a shocked student from Hong Kong had his first encounter with an African-American from Detroit when they were assigned as roommates; Asian students ate together in the brightly lit section of the dining room and not the more softly lit area, not, as it was later discovered, because they didn't want to mix, but because they considered seeing their food as an important part of enjoying a meal.

Food plays a major role in emphasizing cultural differences and biases: A physicist from Shanghai was dismayed that turkey was being served, claiming that it was an animal kept in zoos; two women from Kuwait were upset because there was a dog under the adjoining table in the dining room because for many Muslims dogs are unclean and not welcome inside the house.

The section of the book that Lurie devotes to culture through the prism of language slows down enough so that one can pause and absorb the power of the role it plays. The amount of violence in the US media and the ease of purchasing guns is shocking to many foreigners. "With only 5% of the world's population, US Americans now possess about 50% of the world's guns," he says.

He examines how US history with guns and violence has permeated their everyday language in ways often taken for granted. Most speakers are unaware when they say they value the "straight shooter," are wary of those who "shoot their mouths off," caution colleagues to avoid "shooting themselves in the foot," and counsel not to "shoot the messenger." Friends should "shoot us an email," give it "your best shot," "stick to your guns," and "do a bang up job."

As a contrast, the importance of food in the French culture is reflected in the language: Francois Hollande has been called "fragile strawberry," a "wobbly flan," a "marshmallow" by his opponents. C'est pas la fin des haricots (it's not the end of the string beans) is the French way of saying, "it's not the end of the world." A nice person in French is c'est une crème (it's cream). Lurie's buffet of wide offerings using the full array of fruits, vegetables, meat, dairy drives home how infused a culture's language is with what it values.

If, like me, you find yourself growing impatient for him to address today's far-reaching threats facing cultures slamming up against one another, you will be pleased with Chapter Five's Minefields and Mind-Openers in the News. It begins with common marketplace mistranslations in world-wide products to demonstrate the linguistic challenges that face global products. The launch of a British company's Bundh curry sauce means "ass" in Punjabi; Microsoft's Bing search engine sounds like "illness" in Mandarin Chinese, but can also mean "pancake;" Honda's Fitta car means "female genitalia" in Swedish, while Ford's Pinto translates to "small penis" in Brazilian Portuguese slang.

From there forward, this chapter covers serious diplomatic cultural issues caused by cultural misunderstandings; faux-pas are made by President Obama, Microsoft founder Bill Gates, as well as diplomats around the world, even while those people have at their fingertips, experts to coach them in these areas. Tragically, a few Afghani Army soldiers serving with NATO troops killed more than 50 Western soldiers in 2012, in part due to the lack of cultural knowledge that created distrust; brochures in their language became available to help understand troubling Western behaviors.

The time Lurie devotes to the kinds of cultural differences posing an existential threat to our world is well-spent. Here, Joe Lurie's illustrations are mirrored in today's tragic headlines, and we can only nod with sad recognition. It's only in retrospect that I consider that perhaps it was wise of him to first spend so much time on the micro, often amusing cross-cultural differences, so we can better appreciate how small gradations of ignorance left unattended can mutate into catastrophic proportions.

 

By the same author: Bicycling in the Yogurt: The French Fixation