One of my most vivid childhood memories are of a sunlit room somewhere in our church (St. Ignatius of Loyola in Montreal). After Mass one Sunday, aged about nine, I discovered CS Lewis\u2019s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. I would have had only three years of English by then, not that anyone would have noticed, or that it made any impression on my young self. Books were books, and English was what I read. If words like \u201cpitter-patter\u201d and \u201cwardrobe\u201d were new to me, and the idea of an allegory years beyond my ken, it didn\u2019t seem to bother me \u2013 the magic of the story swept me away, and understanding just seemed to happen eventually.<\/p>\n
Anyway. . .this anecdote, in the context of Betty & Cat, is meant to justify the fact that the books aren\u2019t translated.\u00a0 Kids are amazing creatures when it comes to language. Not much fazes them. They seem to know that they\u2019re there to learn, to absorb. And that if something\u2019s not clear today, well, tomorrow\u2019s another day. Experience has taught them that. Also, if you think of yourself in a foreign country with some knowledge of that country\u2019s language, you know that the actual words are only part of the communication: there\u2019s context (there are only so many things \u201cit\u201d can mean), your mood and energy level; for the spoken word, there\u2019s all that plus expression, and tone of voice . . .<\/p>\n
The amazing thing is that kids \u2013 the younger they are the better – don\u2019t analyze any of this, they just skate on, as though learning another language is the most normal thing in the whole world! Bliss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
One of my most vivid childhood memories are of a sunlit room somewhere in our church (St. Ignatius of Loyola in Montreal). After Mass one Sunday, aged about nine, I discovered CS Lewis\u2019s The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. … Continue reading