Eat my Words!

Each time I walk into a book store it seems as if the cooking book section has spread into yet another aisle. How many ways can we shrimp be cooked on the barbie? I think as I scan the rows of books with a hunk sizzling shrimp on the cover.

I always wonder what it is that draws people to cook books so much. The practicality, the images, the tempting food on the front cover? Heck, they even make me want to buy them all sometimes! But I usually just end up 'Googling' recipes anyway, as the internet is at my fingertips.

Our obsession in Australia with cooking not only shows itself on the book shelves. Shows like Masterchef and My Kitchen Rules have become so popular in the past few years that it is no wonder cook books are also on the rise. I think that it all comes down to marketing and image. Like how joining the gym makes you feel fitter, cook books make the reader (if they ever do read them) feel creative, healthy, and up date with the cooking trends.

It makes me sad that cook books take up such a large proportion of the non-fiction genre. But hey, at least people are reading SOMETHING!

Translating Travel Writing

A friend of mine is an academic who has done research on translation writing. Last week as she was speaking about this she mentioned travel writing. My ears pricked and my eyes lit up. I had thought that translation literally just meant translating work from one language to another. But, no. It has a range of meanings which I would like to explore in my own writing in the future, and is definitely something to think about when travel writing. 

Firstly, translating writing can mean changing the idioms and slang from the writers culture into phrases the reader will understand. For example, a European audience may not know what the term 'kick the bucket' means, so the translator would have to put this in words the readers can understand. This is not only the case between languages, but also between countries and cultures. For example, although Americans also speak English this phrase is not commonly used in America and therefor the readers may not understand it. I think this could be an issue in travel writing as the readers would want to be able to get a sense of the culture and place being written about, as well as the culture of the writer. Lots of this could be lost through the translation. 

Secondly, I found out that translating writing is a process that the travel writer actually undergoes themselves, which I find very interesting. As a travel writer writes about a different country and culture to their readers, they must translate that culture into words the readers will understand. As soon as a travel writer from a different culture writes about another country they are automatically translating what they see into their own words. I think this is great as it shows how much diversity there is in the world-- imagine just how many different reactions and interpretations could be written about one place from different cultural perspectives!

Travel writing is an area I would like to look at getting into, and it sure is a great excuse to go and see the world... and translate what I see into words for everyone back home! 

Image:  http://www.travelgearforwomen.com/travel-writing-2/