What's on DNTO: Saturday, Sept. 26

We're asking "what gets lost - and found - in translation?" this week. Here's what's coming up:

Sook-Yin tells us how she horrified her family with a Chinese faux pas... and will ask you what your greatest linguistic mistake was.

Learning a new language can bring you closer to the people you least expect. Halifax MP Megan Leslie tells us how studying French helped her find a surprising side to her classmates.

"Yo. Nick P here. Today a little cautionary tale. Likely you have a cell phone...and maybe you have a kid too. A teenager perhaps? Yeah, so I understand the temptation to get all jiggy with the text lingo to your kids. You're cool! We know it. I'm going to talk to 44-year old Peter Reimer and his 16-year old daughter Alex about what gets lost is translation when a dad gets all 'tru dat' with the text messages. Word. And in the meantime have a look here."

Jokes rely a lot on the nuance of language. So how does a comedian work in English, French, Punjabi, AND Hindi? We'll talk with multi-linguistic stand-up Sugar Sammy about it.

Is the "universal translator" still a sci-fi dream, or does it really work? Sook-Yin will try one out.

Sometimes those "lost in translation" moments are as much about culture as about language. Habiba Nosheen will explain how a misunderstanding about a seemingly-innocent childhood ritual nearly convinced her mom to move the family back to Pakistan.

Howard Norman was happy to have his novel, The Bird Artist, translated into Japanese. He has somewhat more mixed feelings about how his main characters' romance was "enhanced." He'll tell us the story.

Author Robert J. Sawyer's novel, FlashForward, has been adapted into a new TV series. How does he feel that translation works? We'll find out.

Language is an important part of diplomacy. If you're a politician, you want to get it right. And if you're a government employee advising a politician, you definitely want to get it right. Candy Palmater will tell us what happened when she got it wrong.

How do you handle being "lost in translation?" Sook-Yin will take her mic to the street to find out.

How does a musician who doesn't speak all that much German get along in Berlin? Sook-Yin will find out when she chats with Hidden Cameras frontman Joel Gibb, and the band will play us a new tune, live-in-studio.

It can be very hard to backpedal when you've said something very, very inappropriate in a second language. Sam Fraser will explain how she made an innocent mistake, that had not-so-innocent undertones.

And here's this week's playlist:

Damien Robitaille - "Metres de Mon Etre"
The Lytics - "Last Bit (Lovely Word)"
Chic Gamine - "Tristesse Suspendue"
The Who - "I Can't Explain"
The Fugitives - "Breaking Promises"
Patti Smith - "When Doves Cry"
A Fine Frenzy - "What I Wouldn't Do"
Kashtin - "Tshinanu"
The Rest - "Nonsense"
The Mandarins - "My First Language Is Pantomime"
The Hidden Cameras - "Walk On" (Live in studio)