Spanish and Italian: distant cousins

Good morning.

Three weeks ago I was in Italy, in the city of Pordenone, in a Open Design conference. There was a lot of talks about free software applications in different areas (specially in engineering and architecture), and most of the talk were given in Italian.

People might think that Spanish and Italian are similar languages, and that it's true. However isn't so simple to understand Italian just being Spanish and without having some notions of the language. During the talks I could understand some words that were exactly the same in Spanish, but I was unable to follow the talks because I couldn't understand most of the things they said just listening. Some speakers projected a presentation with text and that way I could understand easily the content of their talks. 

I have never studied Italian, but my conclusion is that, by the similarities with Spanish, reading Italian is easier to understand than listening. During the day I spoke with people in English, and, surprisingly, also in Spanish, because some people there spoke it very well. 

It wasn't difficult to orient myself in Italy, following signs and posters, because words are similiar to my language. But it is clear that, without knowing at least English, it's difficult to travel around the world. Maybe you can find someone who speaks your language (in my case Spanish), but in restaurants, shops or hotels don't usually speak my language. English gets you out of a trouble.

How to solve a translation problem: I Cho-cho-choose you (The Simpsons)

Today I show you another example of translation problem that I saw in a chapter of The Simpsons because it has some interesting components.

I put you in situation: it is Valentine's Day and the students of Lisa's class write each other letters and cards. Ralph is the only one who don't receive any card, so Lisa gives him one that says “I choo-choo-choose you” with the drawing of a train. In Spanish, this sentence has been translated in “eres muy chu-chu-chuli”.

Where is the problem? The verb choose in English has been chosen for this card because it is appropiate due to the drawing of the train. When we read it, the sound of this vehicle it can be reproduced. However, choose in Spanish means elegir, escoger, and if it had been translated literaly, we would have lost the joke of the drawing and its sound. The solution was to find a word in Spanish that could reproduce that sound. The chosen word was “chuli” (something like nice, beautiful, funny): we have the sound according to the drawing and it is appropiate to this Valentines card.

Happy Valentine!

Translation of my author website

Good afternoon.

If you have read this blog before or if you follow me in my Google profile, you'll know that, besides translator, I'm also writer. Today I have started to translate the main page of my website into English and German and little by little I hope than I can keep on translating all sections. 

The idea came after seeing my book on sale in a austrian website, in which all the information is in German. I thought that, if some visitors are interested in my book, it would be easier the access to the translated information. 

I hope that, with the translation, I could have more readers in other countries. 

Language barrier: Disney princesses

Good morning. Today I show you an illustration of the artist Amy Mebberson.

It appears Pocahontas and Snow White. Both princesses love nature and they have a sweet and melodic relationship with it in Disney films. In this image, this communication gives sense to the translation. 

The joke is that possibly Pocahontas says nothing, at least that would be the perception of any listener, just like when someone says “bla, bla, bla”. However, Snow White, who undestands the voice of the animals, seems to understand perfectly what Pocahontas says. 

Where is then the language barrier? Although it may seem otherwise, the princesses don't understand eachother.


Here I let you the web of the artist in order that you can see her cute drawings.

How to solve a translation problem: Futurama

If you have followed me during the last months, you'll know that, apart from translation, I like also sci-fi in films, series or books. Futurama is a sci-fi animation serie, which is set in the year 3000. My post of today is related precisely with the translation of this serie.

The original language is English and in the chapter about I'm going to talk, Professor Farnsworth has invented an universal translator that only translates into a dead language. In the original version in English, and as in Spanish version, the “dead language” is French

English

Spanish

However, if we watch the chapter in French, it is not possible that this language, into which the machine translates, was French too. That's why, the translators of the serie had to choose another “dead language”: German.

That is another curious translation case, because a serie that it is translated into different languages, and, as in this chapter, it plays also with them, translators face to this type of problems. In this case, it has been solved in a correct form. Maybe there are people who think that this solution is very far of the original, but in some cases, and this is a very good example, translation doesn't go together with the source text, because it won't have any sense. In addition, the context and the idea of the machine keep intact, as well as the touch of humor talking precisely about one of the most spoken languages nowadays.