Dr Jonathan Downie on Nostr: I'm finding it hard to find the right words for this. Perhaps people here can help. ...
I'm finding it hard to find the right words for this. Perhaps people here can help.
On another place, I'm seeing people give advice on Bible translations. It's not just that it's bad advice. After all, we're all entitled to opinions. It's that it's based on ideas that no-one who has ever done translation and that no-one who even uses two languages would ever hold.
Monolinguals make horrible translation experts. Part of me just wants to say "if you've never done translation outside of a classroom, please don't give advice on it" but that sounds arrogant and would exclude most theologians.
Hmm. That might be no bad thing.
I tried subtlety, pointing to my weedy biceps and mentioning that I shouldn't be giving body building advice. I then compared that to monolinguals giving translation advice but, since it took two posts, no-one saw it.
What's a quick, respectful way to say "if you only ever communicate in one language, your views on translation might be damaging"?
On another place, I'm seeing people give advice on Bible translations. It's not just that it's bad advice. After all, we're all entitled to opinions. It's that it's based on ideas that no-one who has ever done translation and that no-one who even uses two languages would ever hold.
Monolinguals make horrible translation experts. Part of me just wants to say "if you've never done translation outside of a classroom, please don't give advice on it" but that sounds arrogant and would exclude most theologians.
Hmm. That might be no bad thing.
I tried subtlety, pointing to my weedy biceps and mentioning that I shouldn't be giving body building advice. I then compared that to monolinguals giving translation advice but, since it took two posts, no-one saw it.
What's a quick, respectful way to say "if you only ever communicate in one language, your views on translation might be damaging"?