Monday, April 28, 2008

Lost In Translation. . .


So, the countdown begins-- in just one month CRUEL SUMMER will be in stores--yippee!! And as the sun is just absolutely blazing outside, making for yet another bee-u-ti-ful Laguna Beach day, my thoughts have turned to summer as well. Summers present--love my new Havianas flip-flops!-- and summers past--seven of them spent in Mykonos, Greece which spawned the idea for CRUEL SUMMER.

And while the beaches were dreamy and the town was magic



there were definite challenges to overcome too--one of them being the language barrier.

I never actually studied Greek, never became anywhere close to fluent. But once I'd memorized how to sound out the letter combinations, I learned to read it by watching old episodes of 90210 on TV (everything was subtitled back then, and Greek is phonetic--gave a whole new spin to the Brenda/Dylan/Kelly love triangle), and I learned to speak it by listening--(the first word I learned how to say was: Jerk! But only because I heard it all the time!). And as far as I thought I'd come, communicating in my own form of Grenlglish, looking back, I'm afraid I might've actually sounded like this:

"Colby Empress physicist is hunting nervy to her prizewinning season yet—until her parents end to split and beam her to springy with her “crazy” aunty Tally on a tiny Hellenic island. Stranded in a external locate with no radiophone phone, Colby fears her …"

THAT, dear reader, is the summary for the Cruel Summer Book Trailer as shown on a German site. Seriously. To see for yourself click HERE.

But despite the pure gorgeousness developing outside, I goofed off all weekend, so it's back to work for me. But I don't feel bad about since I know there'll be more days like this. That's one of my favorite things about summer-- the succession of beautiful days!

What about YOU? What do you like best (or worst!) about summer?

8 comments:

Keri Mikulski said...

I live in a resort area, so summer is the best time of the year! The beach, flip flops, tans, running outside, the bay, fishing, shorts, golf, tennis, softball... The list goes on and on! :)

Laura Drake said...

Alyson,
I'm the new Blog editor for OCCRWA, and I'd like to interview you for an upcoming blog. What do you think? Please email me at laura_drake1123@yahoo.com
thanks!
Laura

Alyson Noel said...

Hey Keri- Sounds dreamy! I can hardly wait until the days get even longer!

Hi Laura- Of course, and thanks!
I'll e-mail you soon!

Trish said...

I've been thinking about this awhile and I think my favorite part of the summer is having the kids around, instead of being at school.

I agree with Keri on the beach, flip flops, and tans, too, but I live in Florida, so that's kind of a year-round thing. :)

Alyson Noel said...

Hey Trish- That's so sweet! I don't have kids, but every summer my niece and nephew visit for a few weeks and go to surf camp-- I always look forward to it, it's so much fun!

Brooke Taylor said...

I love looking at how languages translate--they really give you a new perspective on things. I wonder if there's a college course on that. I'd be fascinated. Like in Spanish--a person nevers drops the ball--the ball always drops from the person.

As for summer--I love getting tan. Not that I get all that tan anymore, and I don't even lay out--but it is nice to have a little color. I like to feel the sun on my skin as I do yard work or wash the car or play with the dogs.

Anonymous said...

When I studied in Mexico, my friends and I loved to go to the theater to watch American movies. Some of the translations weren't too bad, but others were awful. I'll never forget watching an action adventure movie. The hero tells someone to get out of the way in many, uh, unkind words and phrases. But on the screen it simply said the Spanish equivalent of "Go away". No one else in the theater could figure out why we were laughing so hard.

Alyson Noel said...

Hey Brooke- I know, I just like being outside. And I really look forward to all those summertime BBQs and eating outside!

Caryn- You studied in Mexico? I'm jealous! Your story reminds me of watching a TV show in Greece. On screen the characters said- Oh look, there's dad! But the translation read- Oh look, he's dead! Um, entirely different meaning.