Hi!

This is Lost in Translation, my hopefully-regular newsletter on culture and communication. That’s vague. Here are some example topics that are slightly less vague. You can expect posts in some of these categories.

• Summaries and thoughts about language technology

• Observations from new countries, cities, or communities

• Word origins or poetry stories that tickle me

• Personal life thoughts that relate to language or communication

• Personal life thoughts that don’t relate to language or communication

• Performing art

These are EXAMPLES! Not a comprehensive list. I’m figuring this out.

Why is it called Lost in Translation?

Translation is a key aspect of this blog. Let’s start with literal translation. I’m reallyyy interested in the puzzle of conserving knowledge and nuance as you switch media - between two languages, between language and machine representation, maybe even between different types of machine representations. It’s fascinating! What’s important? What can you lose? If you can’t translate perfectly, what compromises do you make?

From time to time, I hope to also ‘translate’ scientific work going on in the language technology field. I hope to put it in words that speak to anyone who may be curious (as I am) about this technology and may not have the leisure to pore over papers.

There is also cultural translation. So many interesting connections from person to person are lost in language barriers or through simple unfamiliarity with culture. Communicating with people who are different from you, in any significant way, is a kind of translation. This sort of active communication gives me a lot of joy. It also gives me things to talk/write about.

What is ‘lost’? Well, perhaps I’ll talk about some things that are literally lost in translation. The title was more about me being figuratively ‘lost’ - in the way you get lost in a book, not the way you get lost at a fair - in the concept of communication.

Therefore, I am Lost in Translation. I didn’t think about this too much.

Who is ‘me’?

Some spatial localization first (I’ll start with the familiar details, so that you can ‘place’ me at the right spot in your mind). At the time of writing this, I’m a fresh college graduate contemplating The Future. I studied linguistics and EECS at MIT in Cambridge, USA - where I am currently (2022) located. Before that, I grew up mostly in Pune, India.

I’m fascinated by language and some aspects of social science. I’m also excited by engineering and by working on challenging social projects. I use ‘social’ to mean ‘involving people’.

I’m always on the move. This is not always a good thing, but it is part of my personality, so it merits a mention. Movement can be literal (dancing, playing a sport, traveling, etc.) or within the rush of my mind. This blog may also dance between topics and themes. I’d love if you treat it like a piece of art with many facets, some of which you notice and retain, while the others become ‘framing’ :)

lol why did you make a substack tho

I quote Mark Forsyth in the foreword of one of my favorite books, The Etymologicon (with some modification):

A book substack would therefore have a twofold benefit.

First, it would rid me of my demons and perhaps save some innocent conversationalist from my clutches.

Second, unlike me, a book substack could be left snugly on the bedside table or beside the lavatory (?? maybe don’t do this): opened at will and closed at will.

Beyond that general motivation, I heavily credit a close friend who convinced me to go for it and make an account. (Alternatively, if you’d like to yell at them for blemishing the internet with my writing, I’ll gladly put you in touch.)

See you around!

Rujul