# jezelf laten kennen



## mayadebij

Hallo allemaal is er misschien iemand die weet of er in het Engels een soortgelijke uitdrukking is als "jezelf laten kennen" in de context van "waarom laat je jezelf dan ook zo kennen" of "Ik had niet moeten reageren op die opmerking, ik heb mezelf echt laten kennen"

groetjes allemaal


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## boterham

In French it would be "se faire remarquer". Your examples would translate as follows: Pourquoi est-ce que tu te fais remarquer de la sorte? / Je n'aurai pas du réagir à cette remarque, je me suis vraiment fait remarquer! 

Now in English, I am not too sure. "To draw attention to oneself" might be what you're after. Like in "Why are you drawing attention to yourself like that?" The other expression I can think of is "to get oneself noticed". Like in "I really got myself noticed"... I hope it helps!


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## Joannes

Boterham, I may be wrong (and you may have taught me a new French expression if I am) but I think you misunderstand *zich laten kennen*, though I would understand the confusion. *Zich laten kennen* means that you get swept away by a situation and react in a way you probably didn't want to react if you had thought it through.

I don't know any true equivalent in English for this expression. I guess the translation would depend on the context.


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## boterham

Joannes said:


> Boterham, I may be wrong (and you may have taught me a new French expression if I am) but I think you misunderstand *zich laten kennen*, though I would understand the confusion. *Zich laten kennen* means that you get swept away by a situation and react in a way you probably didn't want to react if you had thought it through.
> 
> I don't know any true equivalent in English for this expression. I guess the translation would depend on the context.


 
OK... So I got it wrong, sorry and thanks for pointing that out to me !
So from what I understand now, in French it would be "s'emporter" or "se laisser emporter" or even "péter les plombs". In English I guess that would be "to get carried away" or if you mean getting angry "to flip one's lid" , "lose one's temper", "blow a fuse" etc.


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## Suehil

It's more in the area of 'letting yourself down' or 'giving too much away about yourself' - but not quite either of those.


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## Retroshift

Hi,

This is a very interesting topic.

In my humble opinion, it is impossible to translate the phrase "ik heb mezelf echt laten kennen" 'literally/precisely'. You can come close with translations like 'giving too much away about yourself' from Suehil, but it just won't make sense in the target text. The translated sentence will lose its value as proper English and too much will it narrow down the context to the preset idea in the mind of the translator. This translation, for example, is 'forced' into specifications, like 'too much' that could be avoided. For that reason, I would suggest to use "I should not have reacted to that remark. I got (myself) carried away" (as proposed by Boterham). This way, you have a clear English sentence and an understandable context, i.e. having a weak moment, in which you almost always 'give too much away about yourself', where you let yourself go and sometimes do things that are not typically you or do things that are typically you but you never show. It all depends on how the translator interprets the context in the source text, but since this context is not really made explicit there, why not look for a more general/neutral expression that covers up the idea in its nakedness/pure form (like 'got carried away'). Moreover, this translation holds the same 'passivity' as the expression in Dutch. Isn't that sufficient?  

And of course, there are other contexts imaginable. Like for example: Als je spreekt, dan geef je jezelf altijd een beetje te kennen/ laat je jezelf kennen (not to be confused with 'leer je jezelf kennen'; it is still passive). There is no significant difference between those two sentences by the way. In this case, it merely goes about 'to show or to reveal something about oneself' without going deeper into it. But I, as a Dutch native speaker, assume that, most of the time, Dutch native speakers would not pick this apparently less logical possibility. Furthermore, it would not be easy to translate that into English without losing the coherence of the text. So, it is a decision you make as a translator. If you still want to go for this context, you lose the other one. 'Die Qual der Wahl', as the Germans say it so well.

Sometimes you just have to let go the idea that a word or sentence should be translated literally. It happens there is no need to specify things. It is about a feeling, a touch, 'ein Fingerspitzengefühl' each individual improves as he goes along the path of translating and using multiple languages. Like you know that in this case, it is not about drawing the attention to oneself (nor is it about purely showing oneself without any context) nor should it be specified in any form of "getting angry" whilst "to get carried away" implies it all. It is this feeling that makes us unconsciously choose between "ik had niet moeten reageren" or "ik had niet mogen reageren" (Dutch) or between "je n'aurai pas du" or "je n'aurais pas du" (French) or between "I got carried away" or "I got myself carried away" (English).

Ok, I got a little bit carried away here ;-), but this is how I feel it. Correct me if I'm wrong about something, I'm open for comments, really. Hope my position is a bit clear and that I'm not talking in circles. It wasn't easy to 'capture this topic' nor to keep it well-structured (try to keep a text fluently readable if you have to make corrections to it in a tiny editing window ;-)) Almost like translating, hehe.

So far my pseudo-translation theory. I thank you. You have been a great audience!

Retroshift.


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## mayadebij

Hi,

Thank you very much for your reactions. While I was reading your comments I think I could see/feel the meaning more clearer. Retroshift you are right you cannot translate phrases literally it wouldn't make sense. Isn't that where the expression double Dutch comes from lol. To come to the point well I think that I'm in the clear when I say that while we as Dutch speakers use the phrase jezelf laten kennen in multiple settings we have to use different phrases when it comes to English depending on the context. What do you guys think of the idiom "get the better of me" like I shouldn't have had reacted that way, my (whatever it is) got the better of me? Maybe not quite the same but l'd like to know what you think.


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## Suehil

I totally agree that literal translation is often (voire usually) impossible and also that any given phrase will be best translated in different ways according to the context.  I also think that translation should reflect, as much as possible, the idea behind the original.

While 'I got carried away' and 'my huppeldepup got the better of me' both do translate part of the idea of 'ik heb mijzelf laten kennen', for me they still miss the idea of letting yourself down in front of other people that is inherent in the Dutch expression.

In any given context there will be a way to translate the idea and still make it 'proper' English, but without that context it remains an intellectual exercise.  But very interesting


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## Retroshift

Quick reply:

'got the better of me'; I don't know , it doesn't feel right; maybe there is an English expression for it but I really doubt it actually, I would let it loose but I understand what suehil means, and the context is unclear/limited but it sometimes happens different languages are restricted/limited for one another 
maybe in this given situation, the rich English language is poorer than the Dutch language ;-)

cheerio
R.


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