When I first began reading this novel, I immediately thought of a student at the daycare I work at... his name is Mason. This little boy came to my work in the middle of November and did not know a single word of English. He would sit in the corner of the classroom and bawl his eyes out and speak to me in his language Japanese. I felt absolutely terrible for this little boy. After about a month Mason began to realize that his crying was not accomplishing anything. He began pointing to objects around the classroom and I would tell him what the object was and he slowly got used to it. Then finally Mason learned "What's this" and would constantly ask what things were. Now he speaks English almost perfectly and is one of the happiest kids at the daycare.
There are many things that can be lost through Translation. In the novel Translations, the characters cannot fully express themselves by talking through an interpreter. Especially because Mason was at such a young age, it was prolly so confusing for him to understand that certain things mean different things in a different language.
