Two Treatises on Language...or three

I have no been studying in a foreign country for three weeks and would like to note a few things about language.

#1: Language doesn't exist. Either that or it varies more than the mood of a woman with PMS. In first grade geography, they teach you: "What language do they speak in Latin America and Spain?" and when you answer "Spanish," the teacher smiles at you and gives you a gold star because on the surface this is true. But take a Spaniard and place him in the heart of Peru and just see how easily he gets by. Even within a country such as Spain, this idea of the uniformity of language doesn't exist. Since each province feels a loyalty to their own self rather than the idea of a unified Spain, they each speak their own variation of Spanish. Catalunya in Northern Spain (with Barcelona) is perhaps the best example of this with their native Catalan and almost disgust for Castilian Spanish. Even within Castilian, the Galicians have their own words as well as the Asturians. Anyone from Mexico knows that frijoles is a delicious dish of black beans, but to a Spaniard frijoles means Mexican beans and regular beans are acaroles, and frEjoles are green beans, but that's only here in the Asturias. Confusing, no?

One of our first days of class, I was explaining something about a car and I called it carro, which is a perfectly acceptable thing to call a car... in America! My German class-mate, however, did not think so, as he adamantly insisted that it was a false cognate and that I should say coche. The truth is they are both right. They are even both Spanish. Carro is just the americanized version of the signifier, but it is still widely used throughout Latin America. Does the fact that it is not a Spain word make it any less Spanish? I have no idea!

#2: Translation doesn't exist. In my criticism class last year, we read a widely-recognized scholar by the name of Walter Benjamin, who wrote a paper called "The Task of the Translator." Within it, he destroyed and reworked the concept of translation. Largely, translation has been considered an art in itself. When translating a metaphor or a poem, the translator finds a different comparison within the language that effectively accommodates the ideas. An example of this is the popular expression "It's a small world," which is commonly used when you stumble upon your great aunt's son-in-law's dog in a strange locale. A Spanish version of this popular phrase is El mundo es un panuelo, which literally means "The world is a napkin." How does a napkin relate to finding relations in a world of nearly 7 billion people? I have no idea. But for that matter what does the concept of the Earth's size have anything to do with it? Benjamin advocates for translating an expression literally to more effectively show the distinctions and subtleties of language, even if meaning is erased. However, there are times where this can get you into trouble, which I discovered in Madrid on my worst day ever! I was trying to explain to a man at a Tapestry Factory that I wanted to come in because I had time to kill before my bus left. Without even thinking about it, I translated the idiom literally, and by the blanched look on his face he thought I meant I had time to kill. Needless to say, I was not welcomed with open arms into the Tapestry place.

#3: Learning a foreign language helps you understand your own better. Much research has been conducted in this area, none of which I have read, but I can say from personal experience that I understand a little better how English works by using Spanish as a point of contrast. I would even go so far as to say that learning a foreign language helps you understand THAT language better. Try to have a native speaker explain the subjunctive tense, and you will never understand it EVER. They have used it their whole lives and it only makes sense when it works and when it doesn't. But in English, where such a tense does not even exist, it takes years even decades to understand when and why it is necessary. Because of this, having a native English-speaker explain it is so much more easy and helpful.

Ayayay, there is so much to say about this. I haven't even touched on points 4, 5, and 6, probably because I don't know what they are yet. Sorry for this long diatribe. I guess this post kind of reflects the mellow day we have had here. Tomorrow is the big festival in Gijon with the fireworks and music, so that should be exciting. Over and out!