translation please

History in the making, folks! The New York Philharmonic Orchestra was in Korea for a big concert last week. It was a big deal because NEVER in history has an entire Philharmonic been able to be transported over-seas. Yeah. According to Merriam-Webster, a Philharmonic is "a very large instrument that makes beautiful harmonic noises and was invented by Phil."

With amazing nanotechnology, we were able to get the whole Philharmonic to Korea for this concert. I got to hear a little bit of it. It was pretty exciting, but it reminded me of a part of my life that I'm ashamed of. I can't translate.

I'm sure a lot of people only know one language, but my problem is that I can't pay attention AND I only speak one language.

I know two Korean words because the place I do my laundry is run by a wonderful Korean couple. I'm not sure of the spelling, but here they are.

Anyo: Hello

Komo-Wa: Thank you

Those are short. A translator has to listen to a WHOLE paragraph of stuff and then translate. How can they remember what was said?! Can they just give the basic idea? Do they have to translate every word? I hope not.

That reminds me of another story. Sorry...I'll try to make it short. I have this CD of The Ventures Live in Japan. The Ventures were this surf rock band from the 60's. They have a translator introduce them in English and Japanese. He would say something like, "Thank you for coming to see The Ventures. We're very happy to have them here in Japan. Enjoy the show!"

Then, he would say it in Japanese, BUT it would be three times longer and the audience would laugh a few times! What's up with that?! What did he say!!!! I want in on the joke!!!!

Oh well...I guess I'll never know until I learn Japanese...and pay attention. I can barely pay attention to these blogs. They're so long! I don't know how you get through them! I just keep babbling to keep myself entertained. I don't know what you're still doing here.

I'm off to translate a word. Komo-Wa.

Enjoy!

-Lopez