Dance the water to the beast?

_Elsa_

Wow! Tiffi has no clue what Gandalf is trying to tell her. What water could he be talking about? She asks Pan-Pan and Lin-Lin if they could help her since they lived in a zoo for a while. They are just as puzzled as she is.

‘You will have to dance the water to the beast to survive’ …….. it makes no sense!

“Maybe he is talking about something that the animals have to do at the zoo in order to survive,” Tiffi thinks to herself. 

There seems to be a language and cultural barrier that is preventing her from understanding what he is trying to say. She is so confused that she decides to do a Google search about language barriers. She finds an article that might work – Blurring the Line between Language and Culture. 

‘Language always carries meanings and references beyond itself: The meanings of a particular language represent the culture of a particular social group. To interact with a language means to do so with the culture which is its reference point. We could not understand a culture without having direct access to its language because of their intimate connection. 

According to the linguistic relativity principle, the way in which we think about the world is directly influenced by the language we use to talk about it. “The real world is, to a large extent, unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever so similar that they represent the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct, not merely the same with a different label attached” (Edward Sapir, 1929). Therefore, to speak is to assume a culture, and to know a culture is like knowing a language. Language and culture are homologous mental realities. Cultural products are representations and interpretations of the world that must be communicated in order to be lived. 

The problem lies in what happens when cross-cultural interactions take place, i.e., when message producer and message receiver are from different cultures. Contact among cultures is increasing and intercultural communication is imperative for anyone wanting to get along with and understand those whose beliefs and backgrounds may be vastly different from their own.’ (Source)

Although Tiffi finds this article quite interesting, she really is not sure that culture is the most important factor in this situation. She continues her googling.

Let’s continue – Top 5 challenges in translation

Start at the beginning - What are the giraffes trying to say?