Hello, readers!
Imagine it: You wake up tomorrow morning, and you are magically fluent in the language of your choice. What language would you choose? Why? How would you use these fantastic new powers?
Dave’s pick…
I would learn whale. First, I’d just want to know them. What does their language say about how they think? Do they have names for each other? How do they talk about time? Is there whale history, whale legend, things they’ve passed down for a thousand years? And then, sure, I might ask about a shipwreck or two. I’d help fight crimes against whales, and I’d gladly be the person you call when one gets stuck in a harbor — but mostly I just want to hear what they have to say.
Mel’s pick…
I just finished a novel set in South Korea for our upcoming podcast episode. It was written in French by a French-Korean author; in the story, her characters speak English and Korean. And the translator had to magic the book from French into English. In the narrative, the two main characters lose nuance in their communications — it’s literally lost in translation — because he is French, she is Korean, and they can only speak to each other in English. Which I found fascinating. What does that have to do with the language I would pick? Nothing, really. But it’s on my mind. My honest answer to this question is that I wish I knew all the languages, and Dave knew all the languages, and we could switch back and forth at will during conversations as elegantly as a juggler tossing colorful balls…. French. I think I would choose French IRL.
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