False friends (III): english-spanish

Palabra original (inglés) Original word (english)	Traducción correcta (español) Correct translation (spanish)	Falso amigo (español) False friend (spanish)
Billion (1000.000.000)*	Billón (1.000.000.000.000)
Carpet	Alfombra	Carpeta
File	Archivo	Fila
Jam	Mermelada	Jamón
Target	Meta, propósito, objetivo	Tarjeta

*In the example of billion, the translation problem isn't in the spelling of the word in Spanish, but in the concept. Whilst in English, one billion is a thousand million, in Spanish is a million of millions.

False friends (II): German-Spanish

Today I write a new post about false friends, this time between german and spanish. Some days ago I talked you about one of them in the post about the Steppenwolf. As you could see, the translation of some word into its false friend can produce a strange target text to the reader and with a different meaning than we expected.

Palabra original (alemán) Original word (german)	Traducción correcta (español) Correct translation (spanish)	Falso amigo (español) False friend (spanish)
alt	viejo	alto
Firma	empresa	firma
Gymnasium	Enseñanza de grado medio	gimnasio
Mantel	abrigo	manta, mantel
Rat	consejo	rata

False friends (I): English-Spanish

False friends are words in a language, which are very similar to other words in another language, but actually have a different meaning. Today I show you some of these words in English that have a false friends in Spanish. It is very important to consider these words before translating, because if we translate the false friend, we would change the meaning of the text.  

Palabra original (inglés) Original word (english)	Traducción correcta (español) Correct translation (spanish)	Falso amigo (español) False friend (spanish)
Actually	Realmente	Actualmente
Constipated	Estreñido	Constipado
Embarrassed	Avergonzado	Embarazada
Eventually	Finalmente	Eventualmente
Sensible	Sensato	Sensible

Translation mistakes (II): Steppenwolf

One of the things in which probably agree all translators, is that since you become a translator, in reading is added a critical touch (consciously or unconsciously). I'm currently reading the book Steppenwolf of Hermann Hesse, and I couldn't avoid detecting a mistake in the translation into Spanish.

The original language of the book is German, so the mistake appears in the word "Gimnasio". The German word is Gymnasium and in the German education system it refers to the high school system. In Spanish, it makes no sense the translation as "gimnasio" (gym), because there is no level in our educational system with that name, and what really refers is the ESO (Obligatory Secondary Education) or the Bachiller (High school) (no equivalent 100%).

As you can see, in translation you have to take into account the cultural implication of some words. Maybe in this case, a novel, the mistake goes unnoticed, because it is simply a comment of one of the characters and it doesn't have relevance for the story. However, if this mistake appears in an academic record or in a CV, it will have more importance and other consequences.

Here you have more information if you are interested in knowing a little more of the German education system.

Interpretation (VI): whispered

Hello everybody!

Today I finish the serie of posts dedicated to explain different types of interpretation. Whispered interpretation, or chuchotage, is a simultaneous interpretation, in which the interpreter translates in the interested's ear what the speaker says in the source language. This kind of interpretation it is transmitted to one person or to a little group, because it is not used an additional interpretation system (in comparison with the cabins that are used in simultaneousinterpretation).

Here I show you a picture of an example of how could be a whispered interpretation: