exercise of silence
Intellectual exercise of translation boils the brain under my scull. I’m back to writing in Polish, have a column deadline on Thursday (which is why I’m over at tumblr fiddling with my brain). I find swapping the languages an extreme sport when it comes to written word. If you’re doing well you’re in the element. If you break all your limbs you’re just the twat who thought that full-pipe is a half pipe with a roof.
There is a reason for this procrastination however (yes, I came prepared). You see, silence in different languages most definitely has a different meaning. How are we ever going to get over the differences in meanings of spoken or written word? This has troubled me before. I’m living in a house with northern English, South African-English and USA-born Greek brought up in Switzerland. I’v been exchanging thoughts with people all over the shop via endless networking sites, instant messengers, emails. We all speak English and the fact that we all know it is the single reason while the whole enterprise is even possible. My question is: is English our common language or the lowest common denominator?
