"A female horse stuffed with wax!"
From an article 'Lost in translation' by Ron Nikkel November 2006 for Prison Fellowship International (www.pfi.org)
Recently I came across a marketing article about the translation difficulties faced by various companies in the expanding global economy. Among the humorous incidents recounted was the introduction of Coca-Cola into the Chinese marketplace. The product name was translated into Chinese characters that could be read phonetically as “Ke-kou-ke-la.” While sounding almost like Coca-Cola, it meant something quite different in one of the major Chinese dialects -- literally “a female horse stuffed with wax.” Not an easy taste to sell!
Gaffes like this are humorous at a distance, but not quite so humorous when they occur in interpersonal communication. The problem is not only one of language incompatibilities but of the associated worldviews.
Anthropologists suggest that language and worldview are intricately interwoven and that language differences reflect worldview differences. The implication of this is that communication from one language into another involves not simply word for word translation, but the interpretation of ideas and meaning.
This becomes particularly important when an outsider is trying to effect change and is what makes effective translation such difficult work.
As vital as good translation is in communication between languages, it is also an essential skill in communication between groups who share a common language. England and America have been described as two great nations separated by a common language. While this is often said in jest, there is an element of truth in the observation. It reflects not only differences in vocabulary but the differences in historical perspectives and worldview implied in vocabulary.
The same thing is true for people of faith who live in a world of two vocabularies that share a common language. As people of faith we speak the vocabulary of our Christian beliefs even as we live in the language of our contemporary pluralistic culture. The problem is that we tend to use the vocabulary of Christian faith in speaking with people who know the language but don’t really understand our vocabulary.
There is a difference in worldview and understanding that can only be overcome through good translation. Kim Workman, a former New Zealand corrections official of Maori descent, well knows the difficulties of communication between his Maori people and the people of European descent – as a relatively new Christian he also knows the difficulty of communicating his faith in the secular marketplace. “As followers of Christ,” he once told me, “we have to learn how to speak ‘Christianly’ using secular terms.”
As followers of Jesus living in contemporary society we are translators by the necessity of making the vocabulary of our faith intelligible in the language of our culture. This is a huge challenge. For while we may know what we mean by the words we use, and while our worldview may be as familiar to us as the air we breathe, the people around us don’t share our assumptions or perspectives and our vocabulary sounds like foreign jargon.
The truth and vitality of our faith is all too often lost through bad translation – lost because, like the frustrated New Yorker trying to give directions to a taxi driver in Moscow, we just end up speaking louder and shriller.
When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked:” Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language …we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!” (Acts 2:6-11 NIV)
