Translations

We discussed in class whether or not a person could fully claim to be a part of a culture if they do mot speak the language. I think no. I think you can't be fully a part of a certain culture unless you speak the language--fluently. This is because, as each of us who fluently speaks english knows, there are little phrases that mean certain things, that when literally translated, are changed. In the play, Yolland knows this because he is trying to learn to speak Irish. My thought is that, if Lancy knew Irish, he would not have ordered so many  of the names to be changed into English because he would have appreciated the history that accompanied the Irish names. The lack of language knowledge made him think that there was no significance in the names.