Somethings are Harder to Translate

[Preya_M]

A majority of my friends speak Tamil and Hindi, they tend to speak in their language around everyone and I'm always at a loss. When I ask for a translation, they struggle and tell me that they don't know how to say it in English. In saying this, are some things harder to translate than others? I know that cultures have their different sayings and it sounds better in one language than another (sense wise). What do you think?

[justusforus]

I think sometimes figures of speech or even idioms are hard to translate...not the literal meaning but trying to get the figurative meaning across to someone.  I used the example of "stabbing someone in the back" but using the translation of betrayal.  The stretch between the two often leads to a measured and clearly tentative statement that yes..they understand but I am often not sure if I have conveyed the concept totally.

[Guest akasha24]

I definitely think that many things are harder to translate and not because it isn't translatable, but because it's hard to make the meaning the same. There are sayings and phrases that cannot be translated without sounding silly. My language which is Hungarian, we have a lot of sayings that is literally impossible to translate to English because it will not mean the same thing. There are also words which have like 6 meanings depending on the sentence, so unless someone is fluent in the languages they want to translate, it is really hard and sometimes unnecessary.

[Baburra]

I agree. I think words are relatively easy to translate, in general, but the idea behind some words and phrases just don't carry over well when transferred onto a different language, particularly ones that lie in between cultural differences. A particular example, would be idioms and other sayings, as what sounds good in English will not always sound natural when translated into another language literally.