The Influence of Time and Place
Not only are you a member of a particular species,Homo sapiens,but you also exist at a particular time in the history of that species and in a particular place on the planet.That time and place are defined by specific circumstances,understandings,beliefs,and customs,all of which limit your experience and influence your thought patterns.If you had lived in America in colonial times,you likely would have had no objection to the practice of barring women from serving on a jury,entering nineteenth century,you would have had no objection to young children being denied an education and being hired out by their parents to work sixteen hours a day,nor would you have given any thought to the special needs of adolescence.(The concept of adolescence was not invented until 1904)
If you had been raised in the Middle East,you would stand much closer to people you converse with than you do in America.If you had been raised in India,you might be perfectly comfortable having your parents choose your spouse for you.If your native language were Spanish and your knowledge of English modest,you probably would be confused by some English colloquialisms.James Henslin offers two amusing examples of such confusion:Chevrolet Novas initially sold very poorly in Mexico because no va in Spanish means "it does't work";and Perdue chickens were regarded with a certain suspicion(or worse)because the company's slogan---"It takes a though man to make a tender chicken"---became in Spanish"It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionatei"
Translation:
自翻：
时间和地域的影响
你不仅是“现代人”这个独特物种中的一员，同时也是这个物种在时间及空间上独特的存在。这个时空是由特定的情景，理解力，信仰以及风俗所决定的，这些都受限于你的经验与思考模式的影响。如果你生活在美国殖民地时代，你很可能不会去反对阻拦妇女获得陪审团陪审，参与法案修改，拥有个人财产以及选举的权利。如果你生活在19世纪，你也不会反对未成年儿童不能获得教育以及未经父母同意雇佣他们每日工作16个小时，而且你也不会有青春期的特殊需求这个概念。（青春期这个概念直到1904年才被正式定义命名）
如果你生在中东，你将会站在那些你交往人的立场上而不是美国，如果你生在印度，你也许更愿意接受父母为你选择的配偶。如果你的母语是西班牙语，而你又将英语作为小语种，你很有可能被一些英语的方言所困扰。詹姆斯 汉瑟林就举了两个很有意思的这种例子：雪弗莱 诺瓦斯这款车最早在墨西哥销售时销量极低，因为“诺瓦”这个词在西班牙语的意思是“没有工作”；还有就是由于柏杜鸡公司标语对柏杜鸡所产生的误解——“一个猛男也经不住诱惑去烹饪这种弱弱的小鸡”，而在西班牙语中变成了“做这种小鸡的快感唤醒了一个男人”
这一波的翻译还是很辛苦，但是我隐约感受到了李笑来老师说的一句话：
英语学不好，是因为你的母语本身学的不好
这的翻译的过程中发现，其实很多句子是无法直译的，因为要直译就无法用汉语表达出精准的意思了，这就需要在理解上下文的意思后按照作者的意图用汉语的逻辑将其表达出来，难怪老子说“道可道，非常道”。
本身语言和文字在表述的一霎那就失去了本身所想表达的意图，再加上后人自我的理解或者附文会意就离初衷更远了，所以，学会外语真的是一项绝美的技艺。
动力满满，进程慢慢，成长，真是件快乐的事情。
