In ASL, there is a saying "Train Go Sorry". I'm told that it's sort of like the equivalent of having "missed the boat", but it's especially used when a Deaf person has missed an announcement or something that a hearing person would take for granted.
When I learned sign, I used to use it now and again with my friend Marcus. He's a fantastic lip-reader and speaks beautifully, but I would use it to spell things he may have wanted clarify and when it was too loud for him to adjust his volume. I never translated for him in any sense of the word, but I certainly reinforce or acted as a back up now and again when I could or when he wanted. The first time that I ever did need to use sign to explain auditory things for a Deaf person was on a train.
I was headed home (to Philly) from DC and the train stopped. It stopped a long time. Eventually an announcement came through telling us that the stop was due to a suicide victim. A number of announcements followed and the delay dragged on. After using the WC I emerged to find a man gesticulating wildly with a notebook and being ignored by a train attendant. I realized that he was Deaf and told him "I sign". He was relieved and asked me to ask questions of the attendant for him. (Note: he did not ask me what I know, but to ask the questions for him.)
Now, I would be remiss not to explain that I was very upset at this point. I was in the WC splashing water on my face after having a good cry from feeling so helpless on this train which was ultimately usurped as an instrument of death. I was new to train travel at that point and had never had this experience before and I was shaken.
Translating provided a much needed distraction and I was glad for it. "How long will we be stopped for?" I asked, prompted by his signs.
"No one knows" I signed for him as the attendant spoke.
"Why are we stopped? What is the problem?" I asked with him.
"Someone jumped in front of the train and is stuck under the wheels." This had not been the announcement over the loudspeakers. This was far more disturbing. I didn't want to sign this. It was at this point that I realized that I had the power to protect him from this information. He would never need to know and would never be worse-off for not having known. I could spare this man from whatever guilt that I was feeling.
The thing about the people who are Deaf whom I know, (and what they confirm about other people who are Deaf) is that there is no mincing of words (or signs, I suppose). There is not the "compliment sandwich" or "talking out both sides of their mouths" of the hearing world. Clear communication is so important that there is probably no sign for "tact". I remember having a huge scratch on my nose, how my hearing friends would glance at it and look away and say nothing, how Marco saw it first thing and said "What happened?! Are you ok?" Or one of the MANY pregnant-teens who are Deaf who would be asked "Is it happy pregnant?" and would be expected to answer this honest (to a hearing person, probably offensive) question honestly.
I signed exactly what was said. Her explanation and his following (brutally honest) question of the status of the person.
"The person is stuck and dead or stuck and still alive?"
I translated until the translating was done and then went to my seat and wept until the next announcement. Another train had come for us and we would be exiting our train and entering the next train. We were to be careful to exit the first train, set both feet on the ground and only then, step up to the next train. Under no circumstances were we to touch both trains simultaneously. It would result in electrocution. Appropriately I was jolted from my seat and began searching the train for the man who is Deaf. I had my renewed purpose and was cursing the audio announcements and lack of visual cues. I found the man and clearly explained the announcement and had finished my first ever work of translation.
I think about this story a lot now while I'm doing my translation thing but I think of it as well when I'm commuting to my translation school. I commute with the train 4 times a week. I love it, actually. I know where my favorite cars are, I know which train I like best, I know how long I have between stations to use the loo if I need to. What I don't love is the far too frequent announcement that my train is delayed due to "Personenunfall" ("personal misfortune or accident"). I've never again been on a train that has actually caused a persons death, but the bong-bong-bong (there is an accompanying blue light to indicate that an announcement is being made) and following recorded message announcing the far too regular occurrence (Switzerland has the 19th highest suicide rate annually) is always jarring and I hope that it always remains jarring. I don't want to get used to pointless death. My train stops at the airport and I often hope that those people sighing in frustration at the announcement don't understand the German and they are not Swiss people feeling inconvenienced and nothing else. While all other announcements are made in German, French and English (Italian in the trains headed south) this announcement goes untranslated.
Dienstag, 3. November 2009
Donnerstag, 22. Oktober 2009
an open letter to hip-hop artists
(translated from German blog Jessica Sagt)
Dear Hip-hop artists,
Look out! It could be that you are not prepared for the swiss public. When you say "put your hands up!", Swiss people (perhaps people in all German-speaking nations) will only "put up" a finger. Try as you might, they will not show you their palms. It's also this way in schools. Americans may think that Swiss children mean "we're number one". It's probably something to do with nazis, or perhaps one finger reaches higher than I hand. I don't know.
Instructions in general are dangerous. Although the majority of the audience understand english, it's difficult to understand, perhaps it's the stage or a dialekt thing. "Are y'all ready?!" is more or less understandable. "We gonna need an Ambu-LANCE" is more difficult, especially with a haitian/New Jersey accent (Wyclef Jean, I'm looking in your direction). Instructions should be short, sweet and to the point.
Speaking of understanding, at least half of your audience can barely understand your lyrics. Additional commentary (especially culturally-specific commentary) will not be understood. If you say something about chains, the audience will raise their chains. It's not that they don't care but that they don't understand that you've just said something negative about chains.
Lastly, I want to warn you. Don't be afrain, but be prepared: At the end of your set the assembled crowd will make a strange noise - a groan really. In addition to that, they'll stamp their feet. Surprisingly then they open their hands, so that they can wiggle their fingers at the ends of their forward-reaching arms. This is not evil. They are not trying to put a curse on you. It's not some strange helvetian MoJo. That's just the way they request an encore.
I'm always glad to see my favorite musicians. I hope that this info is helpful and that you'll come again soon.
Your fan
Jessy
Dear Hip-hop artists,
Look out! It could be that you are not prepared for the swiss public. When you say "put your hands up!", Swiss people (perhaps people in all German-speaking nations) will only "put up" a finger. Try as you might, they will not show you their palms. It's also this way in schools. Americans may think that Swiss children mean "we're number one". It's probably something to do with nazis, or perhaps one finger reaches higher than I hand. I don't know.
Instructions in general are dangerous. Although the majority of the audience understand english, it's difficult to understand, perhaps it's the stage or a dialekt thing. "Are y'all ready?!" is more or less understandable. "We gonna need an Ambu-LANCE" is more difficult, especially with a haitian/New Jersey accent (Wyclef Jean, I'm looking in your direction). Instructions should be short, sweet and to the point.
Speaking of understanding, at least half of your audience can barely understand your lyrics. Additional commentary (especially culturally-specific commentary) will not be understood. If you say something about chains, the audience will raise their chains. It's not that they don't care but that they don't understand that you've just said something negative about chains.
Lastly, I want to warn you. Don't be afrain, but be prepared: At the end of your set the assembled crowd will make a strange noise - a groan really. In addition to that, they'll stamp their feet. Surprisingly then they open their hands, so that they can wiggle their fingers at the ends of their forward-reaching arms. This is not evil. They are not trying to put a curse on you. It's not some strange helvetian MoJo. That's just the way they request an encore.
I'm always glad to see my favorite musicians. I hope that this info is helpful and that you'll come again soon.
Your fan
Jessy
Home is not only where one hangs one's hat
(translated from German Blog Jessica Sagt)
The Switzerland of my childhood was made up of clichés. The ingredients were Ricola advertisements, the film "Sound of Music" and a misunderstaniding of current events. The image was one of green medows, massive Alpenhorns, and a gigantic mountain on which a log-cabin full of politicians was perched.
I've lived in Switzerland since 2006. That's longer than Athens, San Diego, Groton, Fairfax and Philadelphia. When I return to places I've lived before, I notice that a part of my heart still belongs there. Of course, Zürich is much differeint. I remain a foreigner and certain things are still foreign to me, but I've still slowly begun to feel at home. Which means of course that it is time to move again.
2009 will be our last year in Switzerland for a while. Perhaps that is why we've been finding ourselves in the company of tourists recently. This summer we saw a Alpenhorn concert and were present at the Alpabzug (the decent of the cows from the Alps)This winter I will properly snowboard and maybe even return to the Zwieblemärt (Onion Festival) in Bern, or visit Luzern's Basel's Fasching for the first time. I want to take every opportunity to enjoy our home.
For most of my friends and some of my family, Switzerland is San Galen. We married there and that's where they spent most of their time. Zürichers find that entertaining and so do I. What's really funny, however, is when my half-siblings tell me something about Switzerland that I've never experienced. They spent a couple of days in Luzern, a city that the day before yesterday, I'd never seen. I'll never know all of Switzerland, but I look forward to learning more and more about it.
When I've ridden through Washington DC, I still feel bound there somehow. That's actually why there is no question that Ivo and I will return to Switzerland. A few people have voiced their concerns. They should know that our hearts are big enough. We have room enough for new cities and new friends without pushing Zürich into second place.
The Switzerland of my childhood was made up of clichés. The ingredients were Ricola advertisements, the film "Sound of Music" and a misunderstaniding of current events. The image was one of green medows, massive Alpenhorns, and a gigantic mountain on which a log-cabin full of politicians was perched.
I've lived in Switzerland since 2006. That's longer than Athens, San Diego, Groton, Fairfax and Philadelphia. When I return to places I've lived before, I notice that a part of my heart still belongs there. Of course, Zürich is much differeint. I remain a foreigner and certain things are still foreign to me, but I've still slowly begun to feel at home. Which means of course that it is time to move again.
2009 will be our last year in Switzerland for a while. Perhaps that is why we've been finding ourselves in the company of tourists recently. This summer we saw a Alpenhorn concert and were present at the Alpabzug (the decent of the cows from the Alps)This winter I will properly snowboard and maybe even return to the Zwieblemärt (Onion Festival) in Bern, or visit Luzern's Basel's Fasching for the first time. I want to take every opportunity to enjoy our home.
For most of my friends and some of my family, Switzerland is San Galen. We married there and that's where they spent most of their time. Zürichers find that entertaining and so do I. What's really funny, however, is when my half-siblings tell me something about Switzerland that I've never experienced. They spent a couple of days in Luzern, a city that the day before yesterday, I'd never seen. I'll never know all of Switzerland, but I look forward to learning more and more about it.
When I've ridden through Washington DC, I still feel bound there somehow. That's actually why there is no question that Ivo and I will return to Switzerland. A few people have voiced their concerns. They should know that our hearts are big enough. We have room enough for new cities and new friends without pushing Zürich into second place.
Mittwoch, 21. Oktober 2009
more mulling from Switzerland
I've begun my translation courses and am continuing my language courses and have never heard the words "One-language Dictionary" so often in my life. When it comes to French, I still very much require a two-language dictionary for French, but neither of the two languages are my native language, so that must be good. One thing that I dislike from my courses at ZHAW, is the term "Neue Deutsch". I don't care how tounge-in-cheek it is, that isn't ANY kind of Deutsch! That's ENGLISH!!
So, I'm here in Switzerland and I'm a foreigner and am unable to vote. Ivo totally empowers my opinions when I have them on all things votable, so I feel represented, but I have no legal vote. Meanwhile in the states (until next year) I have a very limited voice in politics. I have no congress person to whom to write. I imagine that when we are raising young children I will be able to be more civicly involved. I'll be operating as a foreigner, however, even if I should become more enfranchised. I come from a country where my mother's was not the first generation to get the vote. I've had some experience breaking news to kids about the imperfections of the world with which we live, but I don't know how I will feel when it is not immediately my world in which they live.
I have become more acutely aware of this problem very recently. I'm all about being supportive of equal rights in the states. I'm excited about politically active in the states while I'm there. I'd love to be more actively supportive in marriage rights. Here in Switzerland everyone's got the same rights to the same marriage statue. Know what I just discovered? The concession that was made in order to get same-sex marriage was giving up on the right to adopt. This is killing me. I'd never heard about this before and am beside myself. I don't know what to do. How does one get politically active in a country where she has no poliical clout? As I get excited about starting a family in the future with the person that I love, how can I not want to be involved in equal rights?
So, I'm here in Switzerland and I'm a foreigner and am unable to vote. Ivo totally empowers my opinions when I have them on all things votable, so I feel represented, but I have no legal vote. Meanwhile in the states (until next year) I have a very limited voice in politics. I have no congress person to whom to write. I imagine that when we are raising young children I will be able to be more civicly involved. I'll be operating as a foreigner, however, even if I should become more enfranchised. I come from a country where my mother's was not the first generation to get the vote. I've had some experience breaking news to kids about the imperfections of the world with which we live, but I don't know how I will feel when it is not immediately my world in which they live.
I have become more acutely aware of this problem very recently. I'm all about being supportive of equal rights in the states. I'm excited about politically active in the states while I'm there. I'd love to be more actively supportive in marriage rights. Here in Switzerland everyone's got the same rights to the same marriage statue. Know what I just discovered? The concession that was made in order to get same-sex marriage was giving up on the right to adopt. This is killing me. I'd never heard about this before and am beside myself. I don't know what to do. How does one get politically active in a country where she has no poliical clout? As I get excited about starting a family in the future with the person that I love, how can I not want to be involved in equal rights?
Freitag, 16. Oktober 2009
'ow do you say......nervous?
I'm headed to my first translation class and I'm a bit nervous. Partly because it's a whole new environment, new things to learn, new people. I've never been in a Hochschulekurs in Switzerland before and have nothing to compare it to . Something else that is nervous-making, though is the actual translation. Last night at dinner with my in-laws I was again reminded how individualistic translation actually is.
"I would describe the charachter as dispeptic. How would someone say dispeptic in German?"
There was a back and forth and 'round and 'round that lasted 15 minutes. Everyone had more than two cents to contribute. Instead of listening to the word I wanted to use, Ivo and his dad began throwing in their own adjecties, which they thought better described the Chrachter I would be describing. "Pitbull", "Bitchy"....
One thing that is comforting is that when I heard the word that I will use, it was a gut reaction. That was right. That felt good. "sauerlich" like a sour stomach. Like a dispeptic personality.
Alright, so that felt good. But what about the words like Järzorn? Words where the translation is a few words to describe the one German word. I can't help but feel that that is inadequate. I don't know if my course will teach how not to feel inadequate. I don't even know what I want exactly from this course. I guess that I want it to make me feel confident in my translations.
The innuit don't really have 100 words for "snow" they just have a 100 words for the 100 types of snow that there is: slushy snow, wet snow, dry snow, fluffy snow....... I guess that we need adjectives isn't a bad thing. Just a different thing. I guess the key is knowing which one fits where. Like Konicki's "snizzle", for flurry. I think that I can trust having a good feel for German now and knowing what feeling I want to create with it's English translation. Is that what it is? A feeling? So then what are they going to teach us in translation?
I'm nervous
"I would describe the charachter as dispeptic. How would someone say dispeptic in German?"
There was a back and forth and 'round and 'round that lasted 15 minutes. Everyone had more than two cents to contribute. Instead of listening to the word I wanted to use, Ivo and his dad began throwing in their own adjecties, which they thought better described the Chrachter I would be describing. "Pitbull", "Bitchy"....
One thing that is comforting is that when I heard the word that I will use, it was a gut reaction. That was right. That felt good. "sauerlich" like a sour stomach. Like a dispeptic personality.
Alright, so that felt good. But what about the words like Järzorn? Words where the translation is a few words to describe the one German word. I can't help but feel that that is inadequate. I don't know if my course will teach how not to feel inadequate. I don't even know what I want exactly from this course. I guess that I want it to make me feel confident in my translations.
The innuit don't really have 100 words for "snow" they just have a 100 words for the 100 types of snow that there is: slushy snow, wet snow, dry snow, fluffy snow....... I guess that we need adjectives isn't a bad thing. Just a different thing. I guess the key is knowing which one fits where. Like Konicki's "snizzle", for flurry. I think that I can trust having a good feel for German now and knowing what feeling I want to create with it's English translation. Is that what it is? A feeling? So then what are they going to teach us in translation?
I'm nervous
Dienstag, 22. September 2009
Autumn
When we arrived in Zürich after leaving the pristine autumn of Finland, our city was warm and muggy and "oh, yeah....I forgot" foggy. Ah, the fog. When I first moved here, Ivo feared that I would hate it because of the fog. It rolled in that first autumn and after day 12 I thought I might lose it. Ivo was apologetic, as if it had been fault personally. It was too sweet. Then he took me up a hill or a mountain something, above the fog and showed me where to find sun and that became one of my new favorite things about Autumn. I love autumn and I love that in autumn in Zürich the sun needs to be found.
When riding my bike I need to dodge the chestnuts and their prickly coverings in the street. Other chestnuts will be being cooked on stands on the street. The farmer's market is full and colorful and fit to burst. The Mövenpick icecream stand in front of the supermarket switches to a Brezelkönig stand. And now, I'm back to school which is also very autumnal.
I even played a game of shadow-tag with my husband and in laws in the too-early-setting sun. Inspired, like many good things, by the wisdom of Kendra.
When riding my bike I need to dodge the chestnuts and their prickly coverings in the street. Other chestnuts will be being cooked on stands on the street. The farmer's market is full and colorful and fit to burst. The Mövenpick icecream stand in front of the supermarket switches to a Brezelkönig stand. And now, I'm back to school which is also very autumnal.
I even played a game of shadow-tag with my husband and in laws in the too-early-setting sun. Inspired, like many good things, by the wisdom of Kendra.
Montag, 21. September 2009
from the mouths of other babes
On my birthday in Finland, I woke up before everyone and had a shower and washed my hair and started thinking about my half-siblings. I was thinking about them back when there were themed birthday parties (construction and princess, respectively) and the playing of "Good Guys and Naughties" (someone miss-heard the groups in World War 2) and "Mommy Daddy". These same creative minds discovered the most evil of all insults. It came at the end of every major tussle: "You're OLD!" "NO! You're OLD!" Ah, but they were sweet little things. When their nearly constant companion asked me how old I was, I answered "Twenty." He looked startled and said softly and hesitantly "Twenty? That's.......old." My half-siblings jumped to my defense, though it seemed half-hearted. I could see that to them 20 did, indeed, sound old.
Now I'm 28. If 20 was old, what would those children think now? Luckily they're a bit older, so maybe there is a bit of a different perspective. I began wondering what my child self would think about me at 28. What accomplishments I would have achieved. I thought back to games of MASH and plans with my best friend of running a candy/wooden toy shop on Prince Edward Island. I thought of how near I am to 30.
I dried and dressed and emerged from the steamy bathroom and there in front of me stood Ivo's 83 year old grandmother. Had Ivo not been asleep she may very well have sung "Happy Bitrthday to you" with the childish line "Aprikose in de' Hose". The woman hikes with speed, makes silly faces and jokes and sees without glasses. Then I realized that calling myself "OLD" was an insult to her. I accepted my birthday kisses and ate too many sweets and had a fantastic birthday.
Now I'm 28. If 20 was old, what would those children think now? Luckily they're a bit older, so maybe there is a bit of a different perspective. I began wondering what my child self would think about me at 28. What accomplishments I would have achieved. I thought back to games of MASH and plans with my best friend of running a candy/wooden toy shop on Prince Edward Island. I thought of how near I am to 30.
I dried and dressed and emerged from the steamy bathroom and there in front of me stood Ivo's 83 year old grandmother. Had Ivo not been asleep she may very well have sung "Happy Bitrthday to you" with the childish line "Aprikose in de' Hose". The woman hikes with speed, makes silly faces and jokes and sees without glasses. Then I realized that calling myself "OLD" was an insult to her. I accepted my birthday kisses and ate too many sweets and had a fantastic birthday.
Abonnieren
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