MMmmmmm.....Just a thought on the translation business:
Pinker, in his book The Language Instinct said that Godel was wrong, and that the power of language was such that in every language everything could be expressed. His illustration was the old example of Eskimos and snow (or should that be Inuit and snow? ;) Yes they have more words to describe snow than anyone else, but the concepts expressed (wet snow, dry snow, powder snow etc) can all be expressed in any language, albeit using more words. The point is that language is in fact universal, that it enables the expressing of ideas and that there is no idea that is inexpressible. Clever though the recoed player illustration is, it is too simplistic. Translation is more than just mimicking, otherwise it would remain incomprehensible.
If you don't believe me think of a word, something concrete or abstract, imagine that you and another person had a common language but he didn't understand what this word meant (it happens in science all the time) Then you try to explain it. It is this power to express any thought which makes language so enormously powerful. (And I think is still thought to be exclusively human, after all the ape studies allow the transmisson of only the most basic thoughts or words)
None.
