Chapter 11: "Lost in Translation"

(This post is dated 1-19-20 for chapter sequence only. Back to chapter 10.)

The masthead of this blog suggests these chapters are based on real events and conversations, and yet I ask that they be considered fiction. This is in case thee is someday regret for sharing too much information, and that concern is based on a distrust for the authorities that put Enoch's family in this separated state. There is, however, another reason that caveat my be prudent. Sometimes there are weeks or months between the first and second "telling" of a story, and what was shared in a first draft may be corrected in a second due to misunderstanding. This type of confusion is sometimes called: “lost in translation.” 

Imagine that a game company made an English and Chinese version of the same game.  Let's say it's something like Scrabble except with full printed words on little wooden squares (rather than single letters).

Now let’s say that the Chinese and English game pieces were accidentally combined in one box at the plant and you were at an English-only party where the game box was opened and you had to use all pieces—even though half of them were in Chinese. My guess is that the English-only guests would write some pretty funny sentences if there was a guest who could read both Chinese and English.

Enoch's grasp of our language is improving with time, but his mental word search during conversations is sometimes like that grab-bag of mixed Chinese and English Scrabble pieces.

He sometimes struggles to find the right word. I can almost see his brain sorting through wooden squares in search of a better way to say something. Then he settles on the word within reach which is usually in the right category of meaning, but it is not the more precise word he will someday know to use.

For instance Enoch will say unsweetened tea is "bitter." When it's not bitter like a persimmon; it's just bland--not sweet--but his range of words that mean "not sweet" is very limited, so he uses "bitter" to describe many things that lack flavor.

His grasp of new words grows each day, but in the meantime, it is safe to say that some of the details of stories we share are “lost in translation.” For instance, we recently had some company and I was assisting Enoch in telling the story of “Children’s Day” in Chapter 8.  As I said, “...the mother from his church came to get them to go to McDonald's...," Enoch stopped me and said, “No. She was not there when we were stopped; we met her at McDonald's.”  I quickly revised the story to reflect this new understanding, but in my mind I thought: Oops! I got that detail of Chapter 8 wrong, The second lady was already at McDonald's, and yet the first time I heard the story, I thought Enoch said that the lady came to get them.

So I often ask myself: “Does it matter if I have some details wrong?”  Answer: probably not to the current readers, but when Enoch someday reads these chapters it will matter to him. With that in mind, I try to be accurate but I do wonder what else has been “lost in translation” in the passing months of our shared life with Enoch?

Our ability to communicate improves each week. I'm especially glad that we communicate at a more transparent, emotional level. My wife and I sense that a familiar trust is forming. 

Sometimes Enoch’s language improvisations make us smile. For instance, this morning as I was eating breakfast and Enoch was up in the bathroom, he suddenly stepped to the top of the stairs and said, “Dad, I need  tooth you know…” and then he began to pantomime brushing his teeth.

“You lost your tooth brush?” I guessed.

“No. I have brush. I’m out of… tooth bubbles.”

I went up the steps and into the bathroom where I saw the small white bottle of Colgate lying on its side. As I squeezed the bottle only air came out, but I could feel that some was still some in the bottle. I closed the lid and tapped the top of the bottle on the sink edge. Then voila!  Plenty of tooth bubbles squirted out on his brush.

I saw Enoch’s “shock face” in the mirror followed by, “How’d you do that?”  

“Store the bottle up-side-down on the lid and the tooth paste settles over the hole. Tapping it like this  speeds up the settling.  You should get a couple more days out of that bottle.”

“Oh. That is so smart.” He nodded.

“We’ll get more tooth paste for you soon....More tooth bubbles,” I clarified, holding back a smile.

[On to Chapter 12.]