Free translation
In my day as older people like to say I received what was known as a classical education. That was not true strictly but I did have in my timetable three different courses involving languages. Very canadian. We had English and French and Latin. Only those who were heading to university got to learn Latin. Like me. I spent five years with a dictionary on my desk. Not that I used it. And that was the point of this. My teacher for the final three years had to have the patience of the Saint because she was faced with classrooms full of young people who really did not care. Myself included. I rarely did my homework at least to a level suitable to my plans for life and I learned that you could get away with approximation. A wonderful word there. I was known according to my teacher as someone who could always provide a free translation of a sentence. That is close but inexact. I would have have absorbed just enough to allow me to make a connection to what was asked and what I thought it should be. I was great at confusing the good with the mediocre. No verb tense or noun or idiom was safe. I cannot put it to a percentage but I believe that the teacher learned to avoid asking me because they would at that point bring the flow of her lesson to a halt while she tried to dig out the mud from under the wheels. I did see her later in life and when I told her that I had graduated from university and gone on to things more academic she was shocked. That was not the plan she had made for me. In school we tend to be grouped with our friends in the sense that if your friends are weak academically you probably are too. Not going to brag about my marks. Take it from me that I was a mediocre student. Given that I have spent most of my life trying to master other languages this prompt the question. How often do I get things right. Am I known in my circle as someone who will be close enough but not on the money. I must ask my friends about that one. Or my family.
