Reviews

Found in Translation: In Praise of a Plural World by Linda Jaivin

chloemacmillan's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

sofia_brizio's review against another edition

informative reflective fast-paced

3.5

brooke_w's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

4.0

fourtriplezed's review against another edition

4.0

Lawrence Summers, the former president of Harvard University argued that liberal arts did not need to include the study of foreign language. He basically argued that English was a universal language and along with machine translations it meant that citizens of the USA had no need to learn other languages other than English. This reminded me of a question that I read on the internet where an American had asked why the British spoke English when it was an American language and Britain was part of Europe. Why indeed LOL and I wonder how the good Mr Summers would have answered that question.

Though now nearly 9 years old I have found these essays by Linda Jaivin, Australian author, translator, essayist, novelist and specialist writer on China very informative and still relevant. Ultimately, this is a defence of the humanities via translation and gives very good reasons why they are as relevant to the future as they were in the past.

Some of my GR friends have written some fine reviews of this Quarterly Essay and I recommend them to anyone that reads this one.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/942381330

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/771656762

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/820846778

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/970579061

spacestationtrustfund's review against another edition

4.0

TL;DR Language is possible to translate but culture is not.