NOTIZIE DAL MONDO DELLA TRADUZIONE

Novelist and "Life of Pi" author Yann Martel has lived a life of travel and multilingual adventure. Nothing opens the mind like travel, he says, and nothing defines the self, or how we relate to one another, quite like language. Martel adroitly compares the linguistic practices of different nations, noting how the French are often hungry to adopt English words, but French Canadians resist such intrusion. And he dispels linguistic myths, such as the Inuit having more words for "snow" than other languages. Trilingual himself, Martel gives an insider's account of this fascinating topic.

“Excuse me. Do you know where Degas is?”

I heard a voice ask me this in English while wandering around the Montmartre cemetery. I was in the city alone, taking a quick vacation from the bleak, grey German winter back in Berlin. It was my first time in the French capital, but I felt an intuitive kinship with the city. I had already spent the day meandering along its narrow streets and alleys, gazing up at the ivory-coloured buildings that line the boulevards.