Eva Hoffman Analysis

 From Lost in Translation by Eva Hoffman:

“The words I learn now don’t stand for things in the same unquestioned way they did in my native tongue. ‘River’ in Polish was a vital sound, energized with the essence of riverhood, of my rivers, of my being immersed in rivers. ‘River’ in English is cold—a word without an aura” (p.385).

“The verbal blur covers these people’s faces, their gestures with a sort of fog. I can’t translate them into my mind’s eyes. The small event, instead of being added to the mosaic of conciseness and memory, falls through some black hole and I fall with it. What has happened to me in this new world? I don’t know” (p.389).

It must have been really difficult for Eva to learn the English language. Most languages don’t have the same sentence structure so learning English as a second language, I felt bad for her. She was experiencing culture shock and trying to learn a new language at the same time. She felt disassociated from the new location. She felt as if she did not recognize the words even though she knew the meaning. It gave her a different feeling learning the new meanings of words that she was used to. I could relate to this analogy through my childhood. I grew up with my favorite stuffed elephant and when my parents couldn’t find it, they gave me another toy until we could find it. Yes, this was another one of my toys, but it did not give me that same warm fuzzy feeling inside. Eva longed for Poland, her home she was comfortable in.

Word Count: 271

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