🧠 What's Going On in a Translator's Head?

They say you don't truly know a language until you can think in it. That's true. And it's also a very interesting process that even resembles a split personality a bit. Although in reality, we're not dealing with a mental disorder, but with a beautiful example of the plasticity of the human brain.
When you bring a language to an advanced level, your brain does colossal work: it builds a new "home" for you. In this home, there's a different coordinate system, different jokes, a different pace of speech, a different logic for constructing sentences, and different principles of euphony. What seems rude in Russian sounds normal in English. What is shameful to talk about in your native language is easily discussed in a foreign one. Each language has its own historical baggage, its own little nuances that cannot be logically explainedβ€”they just need to be felt, and so on.
And in this home lives a completely different YOU. A full-fledged subpersonality with its own character. An additional character you can switch to in order to play the game called life.
You can also make it argue with your default character (the one tied to your native language) or help it solve a problem. For example, when I'm writing a book, I often have to fight "writer's block" when I can't build a logical bridge to the next vivid episode that I can already see. Switching to the second, English-speaking character helps a lot here: a workaround is immediately found, simply by changing the point of view.
The second character is usually less emotional, because a foreign language is learned much later than the native one and in a calmer environment, so fewer traumas and unpleasant situations are associated with it. This comes in handy when you need to cope with something difficult in life. Switching to the second character becomes a kind of protection from anxiety and emotional pain.
And third: being a translator is great, especially if you're a writer. Think about it: not every famous writer has translations of their books into other languages, but you, if you can think in languages other than your native one, do. It's a luxury that is always with you, one of those things that money can't buy. Because no one will translate a book with the same love, care, and understanding as the author themselves.

#backstage #translation #writingabook