dharden wrote:tantetruus, when you listen to a conversation or read a paragraph in English, do you normally have to think about translating it, or does it seem more like a running translation?
Normally, the Dutch and the Scandinavians don't have to translate. In many cases, the Dutch speak better English than we Americans. Over eighty million Germans and Austrians don't have the need or opportunity to use English as often.
This debate over comprehension in second languages has continued for as long as this site has been in its present location. I'm not convinced that the answer is a simple one.
The subject needs to understand what the hypnotist intends to convey. If the hypnotist is not familiar with a range of foreign languages, he may use an English idiom that does not translate word for word into the foreign language. At the same time, the subject may speak good English, but he may not necessarily know the full range of English idioms.
For example, the typical English speaker believes that the following sentence is written in acceptable standard English: "Last night it rained really hard, and John was soaked to the skin; as a result, he caught a cold." Let's suppose the hypnotist is talking to a French speaker who reads and speaks very formal English. Imagine what his mind can do with that sentence. Even worse, the hypnotist (seeing what he thinks is clear, literal English) translates it into what he thinks is clear, literal French. It will NOT be:
"Hier soir il pleuvait à verse, et Jean était mouillé jusqu’aux os; par conséquent il s'est enrhumé."
Instead, imagine the impact, while entering trance, of hearing this:
"La nuit dernière il a plu vraiment dur, et Jean était mouillé à sa peau; là-pour il a attrapé un rhume."
What would the French speaker think...that on the last night of earth's existence John's skin was wet and he took a butterfly net to catch a room--while the sky rained cannonballs?
Unfortunately, my Dutch is non-existent, but my limited German leads me to suspect that many anglophones believe that "schwanz" is a number somewhere around sechs and sieben.
The possibilities for miscommunication are endless. More often than not, they are the fault of the famous linguists in North America, Britain, Australia, and New Zealand.
Second point. Suppose the subject is in deep trance, and the hypnotist is doing an age regression. If the subject is dealing with experiences when he was five or six years old, the memories will be recorded visually and, verbally, in his native language. While he is in trance, how effectively will his subsequently acquired English interact with memories retained in another language?
I don't know the answers. But it seems to me that the questions point toward more difficulties than we might like to assume.
I agree with latexstudent81 (and please forgive any mistakes):
Auch meine ich, dass zu probieren (mit ein wenig Skepsis) eine ausgezeichnet idee wird.