Would a rose in another language smell as sweet?
There is something special about reading in a foreign language. Somehow it can make the words feel more powerful, more memorable. In secondary school we read Macbeth during English classes, and for many years a friend and I would start our plan-making with, “Where shall we three meet again? In thunder, lightning or in rain?” The other one would answer with the next lines, and we would laugh like only teenage girls can. In Dutch, it would just sound silly, but the foreign sounds of the words made it ‘cool’. A few weeks ago we visited a large Christian bookshop in the middle of the Netherlands. Books everywhere, not just Christian ones, but all clean and wholesome. The children’s section is massive, making me feel sad, as well as wonder how fast my kids could learn to read in Dutch... Many of the titles have been translated from English, a job that makes me shudder. I have done one translation project, and it was hard work. For one thing, it was for the ex-Dutch market, so t...