Quotes About Communication

Translation-?based language teaching is no longer in fashion, but its ghost still inhabits a number of misconceptions about what translation is or should be.

The words of law often look like words of the language you speak, but when they are legal terms, they are not.

Translation is not just one thing; how best to do it depends on what you are doing it for.

There are many different ways of teaching languages. The Ottomans rounded up youngsters in conquered lands and brought them back as slaves to be trained as dil oglan, or "language boys," in Istanbul. Modern direct methods are gentler but rely on the same understanding of how languages are best learned—through total immersion in a bain linguistique, a kind of baptism of the brain.

This way of dealing with an untranslatable by not translating it while making it pronounceable (sound translation, homophonic translation: see here) could be considered the primary, original meaning of the term literal translation.

speech is such an ephemeral thing - it's gone in a puff of warm air, which is all it is in a material sense

Translation is meaning.

the semantics of words is an intellectual mess.

It can be done only by guessing what the context and genre of the utterance are.

I'm just not a natural teacher.

You couldn't let too much truth seep into your conversation, you couldn't admit with your mouth what your eyes had seen.

Writing is no answer but when you feel deeply there is little else to do.

Being in trouble can have a funny effect on the mind. I don't know if I can explain this. You go through some days and you seem to be hearing people and you seem to be talking to them and you seem to be doing your work, or, at least, your work gets done; but you haven't seen or heard a soul and if someone asked you what you have done that day you'd have to think awhile before you could answer.

How Kennedy knew the precise drop in milk consumption in 1960, the percentage rise in textile imports from 1957 to 1960 and the number of speeches cleared by the Defense Department is not quite clear, but anyway, he did. He either overwhelmed you with decimal points or disarmed you with a smile and a wisecrack.

The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.

Messengers and mountain bikers share a common chromosome.

I've spoken the truth. The truth can't be unsaid.

In a way song writing can almost be detrimental, because suddenly you find an outlet that is a kind of cheating. You don't need to have direct communication. You can say, 'I can't describe it to you, but I will record it and send it to you.'

Quotation is more universal and more ancient than one would perhaps believe.

Assim sendo a boa tradução não é impelida pelas motivações do domínio e da aquisição, mas pelo respeito. Tradução é uma palavra que deigna um conjunto de práticas mediante as quais aprendemos a conviver com as diferenças, com a fluidez da cultura e com a instabilidade do eu.

James Hansen, one of the most distinguished scientists to warn of the dangers of climate change, once said that being in his line of work is like screaming at people from behind a soundproof glass wall. You've written that being an author of fiction who is concerned with environmental questions often feels frighteningly similar.

Yes, I repeat, there is always something to be done with words, and here are thirty-two authentic words from the Master Philologist himself, not to speak of three commas and a full-stop. Oh, I shall certainly go far with this.

People use words to hate each other too much. I don't want to be one of those people. I'll just talk to myself like I have been all these years anyways. It's safer that way...

The fact is, I am in my third marriage and I do not believe in divorce. But I was half the problem, I guarantee you. More than half the problem. I couldn't negotiate with the other women.