F. Schleiermacher and Deutscher readings - Racky

 Deutscher's reading was really interesting. One of the parts that grabbed my attention was that "the most serious one was to assume that our mother tongue constrains our minds and prevents us from being able to think certain thoughts." This claim is half true and half wrong. Mother tongue greatly affects how you think because a language is strongly related to the culture, which often shapes people's way of thinking. However, the mother tongue does not exactly prevent people from thinking in a certain way. Rather, it makes people tend to think in a certain way. One example used in the text was that the German language specifies gender in pretty much all actions, while English doesn't necessarily specify gender in the sentence. This does not mean that English prevents English speakers from thinking about gender, but it just means that in English, people tend to not care about whether a certain action is done by a male or female. Understanding the language characteristics is critical when translating because sometimes it might sound more natural to specify gender.    

Schleiermacher's reading made an important point in terms of translational methods. According to the text, there are always two ways to translate the text. It's either focusing on the readers or the author. Some translators make some changes in the text because it makes more sense to readers; however, some translators focus on keeping the author's original text as much as possible, even though it might be difficult for readers to understand. Of course, this is up to the author's decision. I personally think that making changes, such as using preferred expressions in certain languages, is critical in translation because if readers cannot fully understand the author's point, then the creativity of the author's work decreases.