Lost in Translation

My son was given a school homework to join a speech contest last Tuesday. He only has until Friday to do it. It will be in Korean and English. It was a family homework since we needed to do translation. Moreover, the teacher required him to hand in a copy the next day (Wednesday) so he can go over it as well.

This is the process that we had to do. First, I had to pick my son's brain for what he wanted to be included in the content. That wasn't easy because when I asked him about that, all he answered was " I don't know" and "I don't want to" I can clearly see that he has no initiative to actually compose the speech.

I had to remove the initial barrier of not wanting to do it. Wanting to do it or not is out of question. He just HAVE to. Then we can move on with composing the content after getting past that.

So I asked him direct and leading questions to be able to figure out what he might want to talk about. Unfortunately, it was already late at night so I was only able to squeeze out limited information from him before he had to go to bed.
We were able to have an idea on how to start and end the piece, and a few topics to expound in the middle.

I tried to write and finish it while he was sleeping. I had to finish it before I hit the bed coz the next part would be harder for his dad will have to translate it to Korean.

That is where the problem begins. I thought that he would just simply translate it. Simple and easy. No. He did not. He decided to get the main parts and make it as a guide as he compose the Korean version. His version. Fine. I have no problem with that. He then sent that version to the teacher.

And when the teacher sends it back with some minor additions that I have no objections as all, my husband again tries to translate it to English and asks me to write in down in English. That's the worst part. I wrote the original, it comes back to me with some details not coming out as I want it to be.

I wouldn't have put those details in the first place if I had only known. Hmmp. That is one thing that I have to take note next time. Be bland.

After writing out, put it together (Versions 1, 2 and 3), they still have some problem with it. Fine. I've done my part. Let them do whatever with it. I let them, father and son, do the writing now, as I type this blog entry.

This predicament seem to be a possible one when an author agrees to have a movie version of his book. The screen play that will be returned to him will have added parts that he may not really want to be in there at all or some may come out differently from what he originally meant it to be. What a dilemma specially if you have a tight schedule. Lost in translation.

P.S. I may think about adding the versions here later on..only three anyway, just to see the what really happened.