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Author Topic: Foreign language inserts  (Read 1785 times)

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Offline Miseremini

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Foreign language inserts
« on: July 02, 2024, 02:52:25 PM »
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  • Cathinfo is a wealth of info on many topics, and is mainly written in the English language, HOWEVER... it seems some people just have to include phrases in another language, latin etc.
    This is frustrating for the most part and after a while is just ignored but I wonder if a great deal isn't lost compared to if it had been written in English.
    I've yet to find a phrase that didn't have an English translation so I wonder if the writer is just trying to show off.
    Our time is limited, so instead of many people wasting it looking up translations, perhaps just the writers could translate and make the offering both readable and enjoyable.
    People will still be educated.
    "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered: and them that hate Him flee from before His Holy Face"  Psalm 67:2[/b]


    Offline Emile

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #1 on: July 02, 2024, 03:02:15 PM »
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  • Is there a particular post or posts that raised this subject for you, M?
    “It's easy to be a naive idealist. It's easy to be a cynical realist. It's quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame.”
     M.-L. von Franz


    Offline Miseremini

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #2 on: July 02, 2024, 03:05:45 PM »
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  • Is there a particular post or posts that raised this subject for you, M?
    Not really, it's been going on for a long time.  There are non trads, converts, young people and trads who just don't know conversational latin or perhaps the non english language inserted and it's becoming frustrating.
    "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered: and them that hate Him flee from before His Holy Face"  Psalm 67:2[/b]


    Offline Emile

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #3 on: July 02, 2024, 03:25:01 PM »
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  • Oh, okay. Personally, it's something that I can see both sides of. I can see it being frustrating when one is trying to cover and digest lots of material only to have to pause and translate a phrase.
     
    But, on the other hand, it can be educational. Some terms and phrases have a historical use/context that can add to the point being made. For example, "Et in Arcadia Ego", which I used in a post the other day, needs more than a direct translation to understand.

     
    “It's easy to be a naive idealist. It's easy to be a cynical realist. It's quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame.”
     M.-L. von Franz

    Offline Miseremini

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #4 on: July 02, 2024, 03:48:18 PM »
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  • . For example, "Et in Arcadia Ego", which I used in a post the other day, needs more than a direct translation to understand.

     
    So how are we to know what you mean?  I guess that's a perfect example of what I find frustrating.
    "Let God arise, and let His enemies be scattered: and them that hate Him flee from before His Holy Face"  Psalm 67:2[/b]



    Offline Emile

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #5 on: July 02, 2024, 04:33:21 PM »
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  • Some, maybe many, would probably say that you're better off not trying to understand anything that I write! :cowboy:

    For those who have an interest in history, literature, art, and language it is an opportunity to study and learn a bit. More important than any of my confused scribblings is that people should try to think on and learn from the great thoughts that have been expressed in word and image. It really is worthwhile.

    I'll try to explain my post where I used that phrase. What sets Catholicism apart is the Pope; he is the only one that can make a decision that all Catholics can and must hold as certain. I think we all know that, whatever one holds to be the current status of Francis, on a practical level there is no "decider" to look/listen to at the present time. So, very understandably, we try to understand for ourselves. We pray, study, think, make arguments and try to hold and do what we think is correct. In a sense we build ourselves an ark, our own little portable paradise, as it were. But, just like in the paradise of Arcadia, death is still there. Deep down we all know that some things are our own opinion, no matter how well founded we think they are, and cannot be resolved until there is a credible Hierarchy in place, a Pope to make a binding ruling. It is just reality. Personally, I think we shouldn't be afraid of that reality, for God is greater than our fear and greater than the dark situation that is our lot in this time. That is what I was trying to convey with the image of Arcadia. Clear as mud?
    “It's easy to be a naive idealist. It's easy to be a cynical realist. It's quite another thing to have no illusions and still hold the inner flame.”
     M.-L. von Franz

    Offline Twice dyed

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #6 on: July 02, 2024, 04:49:42 PM »
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  • Dear member, it would be great if you provide 4 or 5 specific examples of texts that annoy you.  Then those writers could maybe improve. I know that + Castro Mayer in his letter on Christ the King, has a tremendous number of Latin phrases...those are in the original, therefore are an integral part of his letter. My problem is that I can't use superscript characters in 'NotePad', Windows 10, to create footnotes.
    God bless+


    The measure of love is to love without measure.
                                     St. Augustine (354 - 430 AD)

    Offline SimpleMan

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #7 on: July 02, 2024, 05:02:00 PM »
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  • There are some concepts that are best expressed in Latin, and people with at least some education, and who are well-read, would have encountered them, and would know what they mean.  If you read enough traditional Catholic literature, you'll pick these up like burrs on a sweater while walking through the woods.

    Examples include mutatis mutandis and mirabile dictu.  Their English equivalents would be something like "making the necessary changes in analogies that aren't exact but that illustrate two scenarios with some similar characteristics and some that are not similar" and "you'd never think it, but...".  

    William F Buckley Jr would have had no pity.  His attitude was "if you don't know it, look it up".


    Offline Bonaventure

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #8 on: July 02, 2024, 08:00:54 PM »
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  • Que lastima. 

    :facepalm:

    Offline Mark 79

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #9 on: July 02, 2024, 08:23:34 PM »
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  • อะไรคือปัญหาวะ

    Offline Mark 79

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    Re: Foreign language inserts
    « Reply #10 on: July 02, 2024, 09:48:46 PM »
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  • So how are we to know what you mean?  I guess that's a perfect example of what I find frustrating.
    你能學嗎?

    I reject Miseremini's call to dumb-down posts.

    In homeschooling our children, one of my first principles was to instill the habit of learning, looking things up every single time. New words, foreign phrases, unfamiliar history, novel scientific concepts?  Look it up! Learn! Elevate yourselves!

    In 2024 it is so easy! In my youth, I'd have to bus to the library. Now it can be done from your easy chair while stuffing your face with French Fries. @#$% !!!