Lost in Translation

Language is a funny thing. It’s so misleading. We work under the assumption that two people who both speak English should be able to communicate easily; this isn’t necessarily the case. Language is far from uniform, and completely influenced by culture (and for those anthropologists of you out there, yes, culture is also influenced by language).

It’s so amusing to see all kinds of signs and shirts that are imbued with meaning for me, coming from an American culture, while the Ghanaians sporting these sayings either have no idea what they mean, or interpret the meaning differently than I do.

Here are some amusing examples (I usually see these while I’m in taxis, so I never get photos):

- an old woman, with a walking stick, hobbling down the road, wearing a t-shirt that featured a giant hand, flipping the bird at everyone the lady passed.

- a portly middle-aged man with a huge potbelly wearing the shirt “0 to bitch in 60 seconds.”

- a taxi named “Obesity.” (They name taxis and buses here as if they were ships or something…) or how about a bus named “All Shall Pass?”

- “Bencrazy Cyber Café” (I am not making these up). Or “Fred Perp internet café.”

- A sign in the stadium for the African Cup of Nations- a soccer tournament being played right now in Egypt, says “No Racism.” Another one says “Be Fair Play.”

- How would you like to send your kids to a “crack tutor”? There was a huge banner in town offering remedial classes for junior and senior high that were taught by “crack tutors.”

And lastly, an anecdote. Mus and I were watching TV- it was some sort of talk news show. During the breaks, they play music videos. The anchor announced that they were going to play a “Golden Oldie” by Diana Ross. But somehow there was a miscommunication and Gloria Estefan appeared instead. When the anchor came back on, flustered and embarrassed, he apologized. Next break, he says, “And NOW we’ll see Diana Ross.” Sure enough, Diana Ross was on the screen. Along with Ru Paul and about 100 men in drag, all singing “I Will Survive” to a crowd of very homosexual men (and not a single woman). They switched back to the anchor, who was grinning and dancing to the music… Now I have to say, Ghana is NOT a tolerant place for homosexuals. So I found this odd. I turned to Mus and said, “Why are they showing homosexuals and drag queens on public television?” Mus was like, “WHAT?” He had no idea that Diana Ross was the only person on screen that was “all woman,” and he assured me that the anchor didn’t either, or they would never show the video. If the anchor had realized, he would be mortified to be seen dancing and grinning to the song.