Yes, it's been a while since my last post. A sort of challenging professional period for me, so to speak, trying to figure out a couple of things. But this blog will soon be active again!

Just wanted to say a big merry Christmas to everybody, or a very happy season if you don't celebrate Christmas.

Cheers (with fruit juice or soda in my case),

Jaime

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Some more idioms involving "pan", which means "bread".

"Contigo pan y cebolla" literally translates to "With you bread and onion". The idiomatic meaning is "We shall live on love alone". At the other end of the spectrum is "Pan con pan, comida de tontos", which literally and figuratively means "Bread with bread, meal of fools". In Spanish, to describe a very long day, one would say "Más largo que un dia sin pan", or "Longer than a day without bread". Finally, to describe something that is very easy one can say "Es pan comido", which means "It's eaten bread". In English we exhibit more of a "sweet tooth" since we would say "It's a piece of cake" or "It's as easy as pie".

Thanks Chris! I would add a couple more, highlighting the sometimes critical difference between “ser” and “estar” (the two possible translations of the verb “to be”, and great headaches for Spanish learners):

- "Ser más bueno que el pan" and “Estar más bueno que el pan" would both be literally translated as “To be better than bread”. With the idiomatic hat on, however, "Ser bueno" means to be good and "Estar bueno" means to be delicious, generally used when speaking about food. No wonder then that the first idiom actually means “To be as good as gold” while the second is a very familiar way to say that somebody has a great sex appeal…

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

I just saw this on a Spanish ads portal:

Baneo de Cuentas
Si han baneado tu cuenta por anuncios inapropiados o repetidos espera unos días para volver a acceder, los usuarios baneados se resetean cada pocos días

Was it that difficult to write this in Spanish rather than inventing mutant English-Spanish words like "baneo" (banning), "baneado" (banned) and "se resetean" (are reset)?

My Spanglish to Spanish translation:

Penalización de cuentas
Si han penalizado tu cuenta por anuncios inapropiados o repetidos, espera unos días para volver a acceder, las penalizaciones se retiran pasados unos días.

Sounds better?

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are two idioms describing a knowledgeable person:

"Sabe más que Merlín" literally translates to "He knows more than Merlin". In English we employ the phrase "He's a know-it-all", but note that this is pejorative. "Sabe latín (mucho latín)" means "He knows Latin (a lot of Latin)". The colloquial equivalent in English is "He's nobody's fool".

Thanks Chris! And now my two cents:

- In Spain I’ve often heard “Sabe más que Lepe”. I didn’t know there was also a version featuring Merlin...
- There’s a literal Spanish counterpart for “He’s a know-it-all” (“Es un sabelotodo”), which is also pejorative in Spanish. A more positive option is “Se las sabe todas”, literally “He knows them all”, meaning “He knows all the tricks” or “You can’t fool him/her”.

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, regular collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some idioms involving feet, "pies" in Spanish. "Pensar con los pies" means "To think with the feet". The colloquial translation is "To talk through one's hat", which is a nice way of saying "Talking bull____". "Nacer de pie" translates literally as "To be born standing up". The idiomatic meaning is "To be born under a lucky star". There is a nearly literal equivalent in Spanish "Haber nacido con buena estrella" or "To be born with a good star".

Thanks Chris! And a few more: "Buscarle tres/cinco pies al gato" (literally, "To look for three/five feet in a cat") means to unnecessarily complicate things. Doing something "Con pies de plomo" (literally, "With feet of lead") means doing something very warily. "No dar pie con bola" (literally, "Not to hit ball with foot") means not to be able to do anything right. And "No tener ni pies ni cabeza" (literally, "Not to have feet nor head") means "To be utter nonsense".

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From Chris Royston, regular collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some anatomy related idioms — specifically the hand. "Llevar el corazón en la mano" literally translates to "To carry the heart in the hand". The equivalent in English is "To wear one's heart on one's sleeve".

In English, when we're nervous we "Bite our nails". In Spanish one would "bite one's knuckles" as in "Comerse (morderse) los nudillos".

"No se chupa el dedo" means "He doesn't suck his finger". The colloquial equivalent in English is "He wasn't born yesterday" or "There are no flies on him".

When someone abuses a courtesy or an indulgence, we say "Give him an inch and he'll take a mile". The Spanish counterpart is "Dale un dedo y se tomará hasta el codo", which literally means "Give him a finger and he'll take up to the elbow".

Thanks Chris, speaking about biting one’s nails I’d say that the literal Spanish equivalent “comerse / morderse las uñas” is a bit more common in Spain at least, actually because a lot of people do bite their nails out of nervousness...

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From Chris Royston, regular collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Codfish (bacalao) has an important historical role in Iberian history. Not surprisingly, this is reflected in idioms. "Te conozco bacalao aunque vienes (vengas) disfrazado" literally translates to "I know you codfish even though you come disguised". The equivalent phrase in English is "I can see straight through you" or "You can't fool me". Another idiom is "Cortar (partir) el bacalao" which literally means "To cut up (divvy up) the codfish". The colloquial meaning is "To be the boss".

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When it comes to translation, the term that most people use for defining a good one is "accurate." In most people's minds, an accurate translation is a quality translation.

But is it really?
That's the question, and it inevitably leads us to the next one:

What is an accurate translation anyway?

An accurate translation is one that faithfully conveys the meaning of the original text. A potato is a potato and a tomato is a tomato.

So that's it, that's what I call a quality translation

You can call that a quality translation. You can indeed set the standard there and leave it at that. In fact, in my experience, this is where most translation agencies and translators set their quality standard.

But that is not what I call a quality translation

In fact, I wouldn't even call that a translation at all. In my mind, a translation must absolutely speak to the reader in his or her own language, instead of merely using words existing in his or her own language. And a translation can be accurate and completely bypass this requirement. Think of a company slogan translated from a foreign language along these lines: "We are the experts of computers of the world." It is accurate, it uses legitimate English words, it carries no misspellings and it conveys the message perfectly. But sadly, it also conveys the following unexpected message: "We are an amateur company and we do not care enough for our prospective customers to take the pains of choosing a quality translation provider who will talk to them in their language rather than perfectly defensible, faithful, correctly spelled and accurate gibberish."

I recently read a professional translator's remarks acknowledging that oftentimes he could see that a sentence he had just translated sounded unnatural and clumsy in his native language, but since it did the trick and conveyed the meaning he would just move on to the next sentence. Thinking of a better, more suitable and natural alternative would have taken him a lot of time. This is understandable given the time-sensitive nature of many a translation project, but let us see if there is more to it than meets the eye.

A quality translation is an idiomatic translation

An idiomatic translation is one that is not only accurate, but sounds like an original, as if it was not translated but originally created in the reader's language. This is real translation, translation as it was always meant to be, translation of ideas and intentions, not just words, into correct, natural and polished language.

I do confess that I can spend up to five or ten minutes with a single sentence, trying to find a more natural sounding alternative to translate it into Spanish. But I can also say that this happens to me less and less often. See, I have been systematically striving to find the most suitable Spanish renderings since I first started professionally translating, to the outcome that now my brain is trained to do this and it does it more and more naturally, quickly and effectively.

Now I don't intend to position myself as a perfect translator and do not consider myself as necessarily more talented than others. It is a question of talent, but it is also and mainly a question of dedication. I've decided not to allow any awkward translations in my work, whatever it takes. And as I said, it doesn't demand so much effort from me anymore, since I would say that consistent practice has pushed my brain's performance and speed in this regard. Sometimes I can produce up to 5,000 words of what I consider as idiomatic, ready to publish translated material in a single day. Admittedly, this is the case for subjects that I truly master and demand little to no terminological research from me. But just to prove the point that idiomatic translation, when approached in a stubborn, tenacious and consistent way will not slow you down, but actually quicken and polish your capabilities and increase your productivity in the short to medium term. Hey, I've only been translating full-time since 2003, so I am not really at the end of my translation career.

Tips for an idiomatic Spanish translation

1. Consistently read with a critical eye lots of different materials in Spanish, such as newspapers, technical, business and advertising materials. Literature from the best Spanish language authors doesn't hurt either, let alone specific works on writing style and correctness (do Grijelmo, Lázaro Carreter, Martínez de Sousa or Seco ring a bell?) And no, translation studies and translation experience are not enough if you don't delve deep into what these experts have to say, on your own initiative and motivation.

2. Never give up on a wishy-washy translated sentence. Keep thinking until you find that one expression that you would have used if you were the original writer, not the translator, of that particular sentence. Take pride in what you do. Can a stupid sentence really defeat you as a translator? If you can't absolutely think of anything right now, mark the spot with asterisks or something else, proceed to the next sentence and come back to the trouble spot later. Eventually the happy idea will come, and you will be so glad that you didn't miss the opportunity of stretching your skill as a translator.

3. Once you finish translating, take as long a break as you can (you can do other things in the meantime) and come back to thoroughly review your translation later. Look out for any remaining weak spots and eliminate them. If you need to change the order of a sentence so it sounds natural, by all means do it. Do whatever it takes to guarantee an idiomatic translation. Once the review stage is over, do perform a spell check. No matter how conscientiously you reviewed your work, chances are you overlooked a couple of typos. Don't let any remain in such a polished copy. However, take this with a grain of salt. Remember that you are the language expert, and that Microsoft Word certainly isn't. If you are in doubt, research the issue a little bit (the experts at #1...)

4. That's it! You can now deliver your translation in all peace of mind, and you will be better equipped to face the next one.

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Poultry get a lot of attention in Spanish idioms. Here are some involving rooster (gallo) and hen (gallina):

- "Gallo" can mean phlegm. Reminds one of the phrase in English "I have a frog in my throat" which in Spanish is "Tengo carraspera".

- In English, when we're out of our element, we say "Like a fish out of water". In Spanish the equivalent is "Estar como gallina en corral ajeno", which literally translates to "To be like a hen in a foreign coop".

- When a wife rules the roost, in English we say "The wife wears the pants in that family". A Spanish equivalent is "En casa de Gonzalo más puede la gallina que el gallo", which literally means "In Gonzalo's house more power has the hen than the rooster".

Thanks Chris! Yes, there's also a closer Spanish version with "En esa familia, la mujer lleva los pantalones", and it's used fairly often. But of course this version doesn't involve poultry... Another related Spanish saying is "Ser un gallito" —literally, "To be a little rooster"— which can be very legitimately translated as "To be cocky". And calling somebody "gallina" (hen) is the same than calling someone a chicken in English.

Actually, "pollo" (chicken) is used in many funny Spanish sayings, but that will probably be something to explore in a future post!

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

I am lately receiving some spam messages that leave me dumbfounded and flabbergasted (what a great couple of words). After delivering some completely worthless message (which is not the part that amazes me), the "author" goes on to explain how to proceed if I want to stop receiving these messages. In an effort to ponder the meaning of each and every one of these words of spam talk (and believe me, each one is a jewel worth careful study), I am going to try and translate that message from Spam to English language. I'll spare you the "body content" part of the message and just show the "invitation":

If you want to delete your site from our spam bases - just email us with domain of your site:
abuse-here@inbox.ru
thank you!

And my English translation:

We keep databases with the express and sole purpose of spamming, and we are quite proud to say so openly. We have included you in this spam database of ours, and this gives us the right to regularly send you worthless messages. Since we assume that you have nothing better to do in your workday than sending unsubscribe messages to people who want to spam you, we are going to spam you to death unless you take the time to unsubscribe from something you didn't ever subscribe to. Oh, and if you ever do unsubscribe, we consider this as most impolite and rude on your part. If you still want to go ahead, you can abuse us at this address: abuse-here@inbox.ru. However, we will be polite in return and say a big thank you!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are two Spanish idioms employing “tejado”, which means “roof”. “La pelota esta aún en el tejado” literally translates to “The ball is still on the roof”. The idiomatic meaning is “It's still up in the air” or “The jury's still out”. “Tiene el tejado de vidrio” means “He has a glass roof” which is very similar to “People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones”. We might also say “He's not one to talk”.

Thanks Chris! Yes, there is also a longer version of the second Spanish saying you mentioned, and it goes like this:

“El que tiene tejado de vidrio que no le tire piedras al vecino”, literally, “He who has a glass roof should not throw stones to his neighbour”.

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Some animal related idioms. "Ser un lince" means "To be a lynx". The colloquial translation is "To be as sharp as a tack". A related phrase is "Ojos de lince", which translates to "Lynx eyes". In English we would say "Eagle-eye" or "Hawk-eye", as in Hawk-eye Pierce of MASH. In English, when one is in a potentially lethal situation we say that the person is "In the jaws of death". In Spanish one would be in "The mouth of the wolf" as in "La boca del lobo".

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After a few weeks vacation (sorry, I forgot to let you know beforehand), we're back with more Spanish sayings!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

In English, when someone experiences a misfortune of his own making we say "He was hoist with his own petard". The equivalent in Spanish is "Atrapado en sus propias redes", which translates to "Caught up in his own nets". Here's a saying in English that has a close counterpart in Spanish. When shoes are too loose we say "My feet are swimming in these shoes". In Spanish the feet dance, as in "Me bailan los pies en estos zapatos".

Thanks Chris! And speaking about dancing, here are some related Spanish sayings:

- "Cuando el gato no está, los ratones bailan" is "When the cat's away, the mice will play" (in English mice play instead of dancing).

- "¡Que me quiten lo bailado!" (literally, "Let them take out from me all the times I've danced!") could be translated as "I'm going to enjoy myself while I can".

- "Otro que tal baila" (literally, "Another one who dances likewise") could be translated as (depending on the context) "This one is as irresponsible/annoying/lazy/etc. as the other(s)".

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From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Animal related idioms

"Haberle visto las orejas al lobo" literally translates as "To have seen the wolf's ears". The idiomatic meaning is "To have had a narrow escape" or "To have had a close shave".

"Ser el gallito del lugar" literally means "To be the little rooster of the place". In English we refer to another animal: "To be top dog".

"Tener pájaros en la cabeza" or "Tener la cabeza llena de pájaros" means "To have birds in the head" and "To have the head full of birds". In English we would call such a person a "Scatterbrain" or someone who "Has bats in the belfry".

Thanks Chris! I won’t add any this time...

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are two sayings that are similar in Spanish and English, but not quite the same:

— "No ser ni carne ni pescado" literally means "To be neither meat nor fish". In English the saying goes "To be neither fish nor fowl".

— Ser de carne y hueso" translates to "To be of flesh and bone". In English we phrase this as "To be flesh and blood".

— The first saying brings to mind the two versions of "fish" in Spanish. When you go to buy fish in the market you purchase "pescado". A single fish is a "pez". "Pez" comes up in colloquial speech when you refer to someone as a "pez gordo" or "fat fish". In English we'd describe this person as a "big shot".

Thanks Chris! And here are a couple more “meaty” sayings that I can think of:

— "Es un cacho de carne con ojos” —literally, “He/she is a piece of meat with eyes”— may be translated as "He/she is a drip".

— “Está pez” —literally, “He/she is fish”— may be translated as “He/she has no clue” (about something in particular like geography, politics, etc.)

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some animal related idioms:

- "Correr como un galgo" means "To run like a greyhound". In English a fast runner runs like a rabbit, a hare or a gazelle.
- "Dar a alguien gato por liebre" literally translates to "To give someone a cat for a hare". North Americans have to remember that Europeans eat rabbits. The equivalent in English is "To pull the wool over someone's eyes".
- "A otro perro con ese hueso" translates literally as "To another dog with that bone". In English we might say "Go tell it to the Marines".

Thanks Chris! There are indeed many animal-related idioms. Dogs seem to be particularly active on this front:

- “Tiene un humor de perros” —literally, “He’s in a dog mood”— may be translated as "He’s in a foul mood".
- “Es el mismo perro con otro collar” —literally, “It’s the same dog with a different collar”— could be translated as “It’s the same thing under a different name”.
- “Es perro viejo” —literally, it’s an old dog— may be translated as “It’s a wily old bird”.

Now a few ones with cats:

- “Aquí hay gato encerrado” —“There’s a cat locked up here”— can be translated as “There’s something fishy going on here”.
- “Son cuatro gatos” —“They’re four cats”— can be translated as “They’re only a handful of people”.
- “Llevarse el gato al agua” —“To bring the cat to the water”— can be translated as “To pull it off”.
- “Eso lo sabe hasta el gato” —“Even the cat knows that”— can be translated as “Everybody knows that”.
Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some (not an exhaustive list) idioms involving hunger, "hambre" in Spanish:

"A buen hambre no hay pan duro" translates to "For a good hunger there's no such thing as hard bread". In English we might say "Hunger is the best sauce". Henry Fielding, the author of "Tom Jones" phrased it as "Hunger is better than a French chef".

"Tengo un hambre canina" literally means "I have a canine hunger". When we're this hungry in English we say "I'm so hungry I could eat a horse".

"Ser más listo que el hambre" literally translates to "To be more clever (smarter) than hunger". The equivalent in English is "To be as sharp as a tack".

Thanks Chris! I would just one more:

"Se juntaron el hambre y las ganas de comer", meaning "hunger and crave for food met", may be translated as "They're two of a kind".

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From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some somewhat lugubrious idioms. In English, when someone is gravely ill we say "he's at death's door" or "He's got one foot in the grave". Here are some Spanish equivalents:

- "Está en las últimas" which translates to "He's in the last throes"
- "Está en los umbrales de la muerte" meaning "He's in the thresholds of death"
- "Está a dos pasos de la muerte" signifies "He's two steps away from death"
- "Tiene un pie en la hoya (huesa)" translates to "He has one foot in the grave"

Thanks Chris! I would add a few more idioms related to death:

- "Tiene los días contados" is "His days are numbered"
- "Te quedan dos telediarios" (humourous, ofen used when hearing a relative or friend coughing like mad) means "Only two news programs left for you"
- "Está de muerte" (referring to some delicious food) literally means "It's deadly good" and could be translated as "It's finger-licking good"
- "Me dio un susto de muerte" is "He scared me to death"
- "Un pueblo de mala muerte" literally means "a village of bad death" and may be translated as a dump or a hole
- There's also "Un hotel de mala muerte", literally meaning "a hotel of bad death", and it may be translated as "A grotty hotel".

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From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some idioms involving gallina (hen) or gallo (rooster):

- "Gallina ciega" literally translates to "blind hen". In English we know this game as "Blind man's bluff".

- "Acostarse con las gallinas" has the shocking literal translation of "To go to sleep with the hens", but the idiomatic meaning is far more pedestrian: "To go to bed early".

Yes Chris, the literal translation indeed distorts the idiomatic meaning of this saying. "Con" can most of the time be safely translated as "with". However, in this context it means "at the same time (as the hens)". So you go to sleep at the same time as the hens or you wake up at the same time as the hens (that's the version I'm more familiar to, "Levantarse con las gallinas").

In English we sometimes employ the saying "The wife wears the pants (trousers) in that house" to signify that the the woman rules the roost. In Spanish the colloquial equivalent is "En casa de XYZ más puede la gallina que el gallo", which literally means "In XYZ's house the hen is more powerful than the rooster".

Thanks Chris! Here are some other related Spanish expressions that I know:

- "Ser un gallito", literally "To be a little rooster" can be translated as "To be cocky".

- "Estar como gallina en corral ajeno", literally "To be like a hen in somebody else's farmyard", can be translated as "To be like a fish out of water".

- "La gallina de los huevos de oro" is equivalent to "The goose that lays the golden eggs".

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Some insect related idioms and words: "Ser una hormiga", "To be an ant" connotes industriousness or thriftiness. A "pulga" is a flea. It is also the root of the Spanish word for thumb, "pulgar" which has an unsavory origin. I have it on good authority (my Spanish Spanish teacher) that it derives from the medieval custom of killing fleas with one's thumbnail. The Spanish word for inch derives from the measure of a thumb, a "pulgada". In English we also use body parts for measurements, most notably the foot. An arcane measure, but still used with horses, is the hand. Another Spanish idiom allows the substitution of a flea for a fly, as in "Tener la mosca (pulga) detras de la oreja" which literally translates to "To have the fly behind the ear". The colloquial meaning is "To be suspicious or uneasy".

Thanks Chris! Another very familiar Spanish saying is “Estar mosqueado”, literally “To be flied” (referring to flies, not the verb “to fly”). It means “To be annoyed/suspicious”, depending on the context.

Here are some other Spanish expressions with insects:

- “Ser un moscón”, “To be a big fly”, is “To be a pest”, in the sense of somebody who won’t leave you alone for a minute.
- “No se oye ni una mosca”, literally “Not even a fly can be heard”, would have an English equivalent in “You could have heard a pin drop”.
- “¿Qué mosca te ha picado?”, literally “What fly bit you?”, means “What’s wrong with you?”
- “Por si las moscas”, literally “In case the flies...”, is “Just in case”.
- “Estar zumbado”, literally “To be buzzed”, means “To be crazy”.

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Let's look at how beans are treated in English and Spanish. In English we employ the phrase "To spill the beans". Its colloquial meaning is pretty close to "To let the cat out of the bag". The equivalent in Spanish is "Descubrir el pastel" which translates to "To uncover the cake". In Spanish people don't spill beans, but they do throw them, as in "Echar las habas a ...." which means "To cast a spell on ..."

Thanks for this contribution Chris! You are right, “habas” is a kind of beans in Spanish, namely “broad beans”. There’s another idiom with this particular sort of beans: “Esas son habas contadas” — literally, “Those are counted beans” — meaning “There are no 2 ways about it”. Here are some other colloquial Spanish phrases including beans that I can think of:

— “Ganarse los garbanzos / las habichuelas / las lentejas” — literally, “To earn one’s garbanzo beans/beans/lentils” — would have an English equivalent in “To earn one’s daily bread”, which actually has a literal equivalent in Spanish in turn: “Ganarse el pan”.

— “Ser el garbanzo negro de la familia” — literally, “To be the black garbanzo bean of the family” — would be equivalent to “To be the black sheep of the family”, which also exists in Spanish as “Ser la oveja negra de la famillia”.

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From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

Here are some nationality/ethnicity idioms, one of my favorite categories:

— In English we identify a heavy drinker as someone who "drinks like a fish". In Spanish that same person would "drink like a sponge", "beber como una esponja". There are two nationality based idioms also: "Beber como un cosaco" and "Beber como un tudesco". The first one is "To drink like a Cossack". The second one is "To drink like a German", "tudesco" being an alternative, less common way of saying "German" in Spanish.

— "Hacerse el sueco" literally translates as "To act like a Swede" but colloquially translates as "To act dumb", often used to signify that someone is pretending not to know what's going on. "Más celoso que un turco" translates as "More jealous than a Turk" and the idiomatic meaning is not hard to guess. It means to be consumed with jealousy.

Thanks for these contributions Chris! I would add that "Hacerse el sueco" is often used to complain that somebody pretends not to be hearing or understanding what you say because what you're saying is not very convenient for him or her...

Some other idioms I know that would be included in this category:

— "Despedirse a la francesa" is "To take the French leave". Seems to be a widely accepted stereotype since it's the same in both languages...

— "Guay del Paraguay" means "way cool" and the rhyme between those words is playful and humorous.

— For some reason, there are many idioms involving the Chinese. The less favorable one is "Engañar a alguien como a un chino", which would be translated literally as "To deceive somebody like you would deceive a Chinese person" and would be equivalent to "To take somebody for a ride". But other idioms portray Chinese people as hard workers: "Trabajar como un chino" —"To work like a Chinese"— can be translated as "To work oneself to death". "Sudar tinta china" —"To sweat Chinese/India ink"— can be translated as "To sweat blood". Finally, "Me suena a chino" —"It sounds like Chinese to me"— can be translated as "It's all Greek to me".

— "Hacer el indio" —"to do the Indian"— would translate as "To act/play the fool".

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

From Chris Royston, weekly collaborator here at Into Spanish Translation Blog:

This week's entry deals with money/coins/currency. A Spanish idiom in this category is "Pagar a uno con la misma moneda", which translates literally as "To pay someone with the same coin". I have heard in English "To pay someone back in his own coin/in kind", but at least to an American ear this sounds antiquated. A more current equivalent is "To give someone a taste of his own medicine". Yet another version is "To give tit for tat".

A skinflint or tightwad in Spain would be described as a "pesetero" deriving from the prior currency, the peseta. I don't think we'll see anything similar with the euro since adding the same suffix would result in "eurero", and this doesn't quite sound right in Spanish.

Thanks for contributing this Chris! I would also add the following:

- "Le sale el dinero por las orejas" means literally "He has money coming out of his ears". Some English equivalents would be "He's made of money" or "He has money to burn".
- "Es moneda corriente" (literally translated, "It's usual/established currency") can be translated as "It's an everyday occurrence".
- "Dinero contante y sonante" (literally, "Counting and sounding money") can be translated as "Hard cash".

Want more? Don't hesitate to visit Colloquial Spanish blog!

Christopher Royston over at Colloquial Spanish blog was kind enough to accept my proposal to contribute Spanish idioms and their English translations on a weekly basis to this blog. So you and I will be enjoying his findings from now on!

Please keep in mind that he will mainly be discussing idioms in Spanish from Spain and their equivalents in English from the US, and some of these idioms will not apply or be slightly different in other English and Spanish-speaking countries. In any case, I am sure that we will all enjoy this new section, which will summarize and complement what is being posted on Colloquial Spanish blog.

Chris is from the US and his parents are also Americans. He went to kindergarten in the Balearic Islands, Spain, then went back to the US and returned to Spain 10 years later, living in Madrid for 3 years. Back to the States, he raised a family with two bilingual children —speaking English and Spanish of course. He's indeed a Hispanophile and his goal is to gather a great collection of Spanish idioms and their equivalents in US English. He's been gathering these for years, and with the help of his blog readers he intends to fine-tune and expand them as much as possible, and eventually write a book with his findings and the cultural differences that can be inferred from them.

Lots of luck with this great project, and welcome to this blog Chris!

Talking about translation pitfalls, I recently came across a blog from an old classmate in translation studies at Universidad Complutense de Madrid. Javier Perez's La duda ofende is an awesome blog dealing with frequent translation errors, unnecessary borrowings or calques from other languages, spelling issues and many other important aspects of Spanish translation, and it's written in Spanish. If you are a professional Spanish translator, you should definitely and avidly read La duda ofende's frequent posts, which will help you fine-tune and polish your Spanish translation and writing skills. I can't recommend it enough!

One of the most common pitfalls in English to Spanish translation arises from differences in the use of the passive voice. In English, the passive voice is used very frequently. It is true that many people, including many language professors, discourage its use in English, but the truth is that the passive voice is very well rooted and indeed very useful in the English language. However, this is not the case in Spanish. For more clarity, and instead of giving you an academic definition, I will give three examples of active vs. passive voice:

Active voice: "You need to do this"
Passive voice: "This needs to be done (by you)"

Active voice: "A storm struck our house"
Passive voice: "Our house was stricken by a storm"

Active voice: "You can install this program"
Passive voice: "This program can be installed (by you)"

As mentioned earlier, in Spanish we hardly use the passive voice, and —even though it's grammatically correct— the abuse of the passive voice makes a Spanish text sound rather clumsy and unnatural. A good writing style indeed demands more than just correct grammar.

However, the passive voice may be considered good style in Spanish when the agent of the sentence —the element performing the action— is unknown, as in "I was pushed and felt flat on my face" —pushed by whom? We don't know— or we don't want to specify it, as in "they were fined for speeding" —by the police, but it's too obvious. We could render these sentences into Spanish as "fui empujado y me caí de bruces" and "fueron multados por exceso de velocidad", both using the passive voice, and that would be fine. However, even in these situations, when the agent is omitted because we don't know it or prefer to ignore it, we could do without the passive voice in Spanish. And this is one of the reasons why the passive voice is rare in "original writing" in Spanish, so it should be as rare in texts translated into Spanish. These are some ways to translate those English sentences in the passive voice without using the passive voice in Spanish:

"I was pushed and felt flat on my face" could be translated as:
—"Me empujaron y me caí de bruces"
—"Alguien me empujó y me caí de bruces"
—"Recibí un empujón y me caí de bruces"

"They were fined for speeding" could be translated as:
—"Se los multó por exceso de velocidad" —reflexive passive voice here, this one is indeed more frequently used than regular passive voice in Spanish. Very often it's the best and easiest option to avoid a regular passive voice and sound more natural.
—"Los multaron por exceso de velocidad"
—"Recibieron una multa por exceso de velocidad"

None of these Spanish translation options used the regular passive voice. So even when the agent is unknown/inconvenient to specify and the passive voice would be considered good style, this great variety of translation options highlights the fact that a natural Spanish text would use very few passive voices. It takes some effort and skill to avoid passive voices in Spanish when translating English passive voices, but you get the knack more easily and quickly than you would imagine if you consistently try to ask yourself what I consider the Golden Question for translation: "How would I express this if I was writing in Spanish from scratch rather than translating from English?"

Here's an interesting development in the field of computer language acquisition. In my opinion, there is still a long way to go in order to teach computers to understand and process language in the way humans do, but it's interesting to see the progress that is being made in this area:

Solving the Riddle of Language Acquisition:

How to Design a Virtual Infant (MLAS)

TETSUO SUGA, Japan Women's University

Note: The paper shown below is an enlarged version of my report at the "JSLS 2001".
Abstract
A computer program that simulates the infant language faculty is proposed. The program, called Multi-Language Acquisition System (MLAS), may be regarded as capable of attaining the level of acquisition of a 4-5 years old child, whatever the target language is (the performance of MLAS was demonstrated for English and Japanese at the 2001 JSLS meeting). Two novel characteristics distinguish MLAS: (1) it employs multiple "program-generating program" modules; and, (2) it may be able to acquire pragmatic meanings on the basis of story data described by using thematic roles. Following the discussion of these points, several outstanding problems concerning the understanding of human language acquisition are taken up and their tentative solutions within the MLAS framework are discussed.

You will find the rest of the paper at the following URL: http://www10.ocn.ne.jp/~mlas/JSLS_Paper.htm

... And you're based in the European Union. Spread the word!

EU-grant brings down fees to €1,600 for postgraduate global computing and localisation programmes

Limerick, Ireland, 25 May 2007: The University of Limerick has just announced that the Irish Higher Education Authority (HEA) is making significant funding available to its recently launched new postgraduate programmes in Global Computing and Localisation. These grants will benefit students from all EU countries who will realize savings of approximately €3,650 against the standard fees.

The US$9 billion localisation industry has an increased demand for professional localisers with a solid technical and business oriented background. In close cooperation with industrial and academic experts, the University of Limerick who was the first to offer dedicated postgraduate localisation programmes in 1997 is now responding to this demand by offering two new postgraduate programmes in localisation, starting in September 2007.

The Graduate Diploma in Localisation Technology and the Master of Science in Global Computing and Localisation will be offered on a full-time and part-time (one-day-a-week) basis.

Reinhard Schäler, Director of the Localisation Research Centre (LRC) at the University and Course Coordinator for these programmes, said “We are extremely pleased to see that the Irish Higher Education Authority sees localisation as a strategic postgraduate skill and has decided to support it so generously. These grants will make a significant difference to students wishing to pursue our programmes.”

Ireland has been a world centre of localisation since the mid 1980s, with companies such as Microsoft, Oracle, Symantec and Google locating their European Headquarters here. International academic and business leaders have described the University of Limerick as “the Mecca of Localisation”, “teaching the best minds in the internationalisation and localisation business”. UL has been offering postgraduate courses in localisation for the past decade, is the home of the EU-funded Localisation Tools Laboratory and Showcase (LOTS) and is the publisher of the peer-reviewed and indexed Localisation Focus – The International Journal of Localisation. More information on these programmes is available on www.localisation.ie/education.

Translation as a vocation is a very nice and useful Flickr presentation about the joys and pains of freelance translating.

Seen at two blogs that I will be following closely: Blogamundo and There's Something About Translation...

While at Technorati, I discovered the interesting English-language blog "Colloquial Spanish", which offers daily Spanish expressions and their equivalents in English. It is indeed worth a read.

Some examples of expressions mentioned on this blog:

Spanish: “Irse por los cerros de Ubeda” literally means “To go through the Hills of Ubeda”, Ubeda being a town in Spain. The English equivalent is “To go off on a tangent” or “To wander off the subject”

In English we use the phrase “To twiddle one’s thumbs” to signify that we’re lounging about or being in between activities. In Spanish the equivalent phrase would be “Rascarse la barriga” which literally means “To scratch one’s belly”

For the latter one, I left a comment suggesting the alternative and rather funny Spanish expression "Tocarse las narices" (To touch one's noses). So yes, I took the time to leave a few comments during my visit. The author seems to know his Spanish well and his blog is lots of fun. Enjoy!

Is it? It can indeed be, when you don't take appropriate measures to assure a professional and high-quality translation. Can't you believe it? Take a look at this piece of news from CNN.com:

Doris Moore was shocked when her new couch was delivered to her Toronto home with a label that used a racial slur to describe the dark brown shade of the upholstery.

The situation was even more alarming for Moore because it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out "nigger brown" on the tag.

"My daughter saw the label and she knew the color brown, but didn't know what the other word meant. She asked, 'Mommy, what color is that?' I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. I never thought that's how she'd learn of that word," Moore said.

The mother complained to the furniture store, which blamed the supplier, who pointed to a computer problem as the source of the derogatory label

Kingsoft Corp., a Chinese software company, acknowledged its translation program was at fault and said it was a regrettable error.

"I know this is a very bad word," Huang Luoyi, a product manager for the Beijing-based company's translation software, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He explained that when the Chinese characters for "dark brown" are typed into an older version of its Chinese-English translation software, the offensive description comes up.

"We got the definition from a Chinese-English dictionary. We've been using the dictionary for 10 years. Maybe the dictionary was updated, but we probably didn't follow suit," he said.

Moore, who is black, said Kingsoft's acknowledgment of a mistake does not make her feel better.

"They should know what they are typing, even if it is a software error," she said. "In order for something to come into the country, don't they read it first? Doesn't the manufacturer? The supplier?"

...

Moore is consulting with a lawyer and wants compensation. Last week, she filed a report with the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Commission spokeswoman Afroze Edwards said the case is in the initial stages and could take six months to two years to resolve.

Moore, 30, has three young children, and said the issue has taken a toll on her family.

"Something more has to be done. We don't just need a personal apology, but someone needs to own up to where these labels were made, and someone needs to apologize to all people of color," Moore said. "I had friends over from St. Lucia yesterday and they wouldn't sit on the couch."

Another proof of the importance of the Spanish language for US Hispanics. Not that it is surprising, but just to strike a balance with other recent reports which suggest a rapid assimilation of US Hispanics into American culture and language...

Via Hispanic Trending:

Report: Spanish-language websites in demand

By Chris Reidy
April 26, 2007

A report from Forrester Research Inc. says 51 percent of US Hispanics who use the Internet prefer Spanish-language websites, and 23 percent must have Spanish online.

Forrester, a Cambridge technology and market research company, did a telephone survey of 3,000 US Hispanics earlier this year.

‘‘English-language sites are currently underserving 7.1 million online Hispanics,’’ said a Forrester data researcher, Tamara Barber. ‘‘If companies are serious about reaching this growing audience, they need to offer Spanish-language sites.

‘‘Not only does Spanish online help those who depend on Spanish for interactions, but it also builds brand value with consumers who can transact in English but prefer to be served in Spanish.’’

Source: Boston Globe

If you are a professional translator, chances are that you have been trying to access IATE, the European Union terminological database, with little or no success. Indeed, they have been experiencing technical problems, and though these are over now, there is something to do on your computers to make it work. Fellow Greek translator Nick Lingris explains here how to go about it (copied below for your convenience):

At the bottom of the IATE search screen there is a frame which reads: Your last 10 requests. If you have been having problems with your searches and you click on ‘Select a saved request’, you will see that there is a very long string which has been created as a result of incorrect saving of your searches by the IATE program. This string is saved in the IATE cookie and, when it can no longer be updated, searches stop functioning. This happens regardless of the browser you use. The solution, for the time being, seems to be to delete the IATE cookie. DO NOT follow the solution that says ‘Delete cookies’ because there are many cookies there which you need.

For IE, follow these steps:
In Windows Explorer go to Documents and Settings > Your Computer Name (mine, for example, is Nick) > Cookies. Click on Search at the top. Choose to Search for Documents. Use Advanced search options and, where it says ‘All or part of the document name’ type ‘iate’ (without the quotes). Press Search and, once the results of the search come up, delete the iate cookie(s) (mine is called nick@iate.europa[2].txt).
Close and re-open Internet Explorer so it forgets the cookie it had in memory. When you reconnect to IATE, the ‘Select a saved request’ frame should be empty and the searches should function properly until a false string is recreated, in which case you will have to repeat the procedure. Or, hopefully, the IATE team will soon solve the problem.

For Firefox, do not use Windows Explorer. In the Firefox browser, go to Tools > Options > Privacy > Show Cookies. In the Search box type ‘iate’ (without the quotes) and Remove cookies with the iate name. Close and re-open Firefox.

I followed the procedure myself (on FireFox) and I can again access IATE, which is of course great news!

1) Automatic (computer-generated) translation

Virtually every one of us has wondered at least once if computer-generated translation could be the ideal solution to our translation needs. After all, computers get more and more powerful and intelligent every day, so they must have figured this out by now, right? Well, actually, no. Language is intrinsically related to the human conscience and the human mind, with all its richness and complexity, nuances, double meanings, ambiguities... And computers have a long way to go before figuring all of this out. Of course, there is a certain measure of relativity in this. Granted, a computer will probably never be able to translate marketing or literature materials not even faintly close to adequately. However, for highly technical, very repetitive texts, the story would be somewhat different. But more on this later.

2) Translating in-house

Okay, so now that we established that computers will not address our translation needs adequately, we know that we need a real person to translate our materials. But wait a minute! My bilingual assistant is proficient in English and Spanish! She can translate for us, right?

Well, stop to think for a minute. Would you, for example, entrust your bilingual assistant with writing your company’s technical handbooks, even if he or she is proficient in English? Probably not. You would rather look for somebody who is a skilled technical writer. Similarly, unless your bilingual assistant happens to be a highly skilled linguist with specific training in translation, and a native speaker of your target language, you will do no favor to your company — or to your assistant for that matter — if you expect him or her to accomplish a task that he or she is not qualified to perform, such as professional translation.

3) The cheapest translation company we can find

I am starting to get upset with all of this. After all, translation should not be so complicated! Why, it is just taking English words and converting them into Spanish, French or German, nothing out of this world, right? We will just ask four different translation companies for translation quotes and go with the lowest offer. That should do just fine…

However interesting this option may sound, there is a high risk associated with it. Remember that your image, your message, and ultimately your bottom line are at stake here. A poor translation, even though it will cost less initially, can be the most expensive option. Think lost clients for lack of credibility, complaints or constant queries from your customers because they do not understand your target-language materials, or even worse, being sued by them because they got your message wrong and did something that caused them an injury or financial losses…

When you seriously look for quality, it is more likely that you will find it. If you are only looking for a low price, you are probably heading for disaster!

4) A top-notch freelance translator

In this case, we will do something else… We will just go without middle-men. Let’s do a search for a freelance translator, let’s choose the very best one, and we will save on commissions charged by translation companies.

Well, this can indeed be an interesting option if handled carefully and under some conditions. Freelance translators will often provide you with translation work only. Some of them will be able to provide desktop publishing services or translations in complex formats, others not. Depending on what you need (and if you only need translations into a couple of languages, which will be reasonably easy to handle by yourself), this can indeed be a good option, provided that the translator is really top-notch. High-quality translation providers pick their translators carefully, saving you a trial and error process that can require a great deal of time and resources. If you need reliable freelance translators for your projects, you will find a very good list of them here: www.squidoo.com/translationservices.

5) A reputed translation company
Hhhmmm… I think we should go with the safest option. Let’s just take one of the world’s leading translation companies. They will be able to address all of our needs, manage our multilingual projects effectively with little or no hassle for us, and they probably have highly qualified translators that they have selected carefully. It might be more expensive, but safer.

Great choice! And here I am to point you in the right direction: SDL International (www.sdl.com) is one of the most reputed translation companies out there, well known for their high standards and responsiveness. A very safe option indeed.

6) A freelance translation network
More and more professional translators, faced with the ever-decreasing rates offered by many translation agencies, are teaming up to provide their services without intermediaries, which allows them to offer very affordable rates to the end clients (saving on administrative costs incurred by translation agencies) while earning a fair compensation for themselves. Many of these translation networks are very reliable and offer high-quality services through cooperation among their members, who are professional and skilled translators. Very often they can offer a range of services that is comparable to what translation agencies offer. www.betranslated.com is one of these freelance translation services networks, and it offers support for the most common world languages. Other networks specialize on a language or a couple of languages, such as JB Translations Spanish translation network.

7) Controlled language + automatic translation + human post-editing
What if you have tons of highly technical and repetitive texts? Isn’t there a way to cut costs in this case? There indeed is, and this is where computers come in to the rescue. If you would care to invest the necessary resources to train your staff in learning how to write in controlled English, you will actually be able to obtain the savings you are looking for. Controlled language in general consists of a set of rules entailing simplification and standardization of grammar and vocabulary, which help computers understand and translate the resulting texts more adequately. A system powered by machine translation and enhanced by a translation memory created specifically for your materials is used, and the output is then post-edited by professional translators who are trained for this kind of task, thus automating a good deal of the translation process and saving costs. You will find more information about this on this translation article: www.uem.es/web/ott/ingles/controlados.html. Companies such as SDL International can help you throughout this process, from training your staff in controlled languages to creating your translation memory to post-editing the machine-translated output.

Whatever the option you end up choosing for your translations, hopefully this post will have been a useful resource to help you find the solution that fits your needs best, and especially to help you reach your target audience with a clear and polished message that conveys the right image about your company.

English and Spanish are different. Hardly a surprise, right? But they are different in many ways that sometimes can go unnoticed, especially if you are so focused on the original English text that you fail to step back and think: wait, this is not how I would express myself in Spanish if I wasn't translating...

One of these important differences is in the use of personal pronouns. While in English we use them very often, this is not the case in Spanish. There is a reason for this. Let's take a look at conjugation for a common verb, like "say" ("decir" in Spanish):

I say
You say
He/she says
We say
You say
They say

Yo digo
Tú dices
Él/ella/usted dice
Nosotros decimos
Vosotros decís
Ellos/ellas/ustedes dicen

It becomes clear that personal pronouns are essential in English in order to specify which person is "saying" something or performing any other action. However, in Spanish we can easily stick to:

Digo
Dices
Dice
Decimos
Decís
Dicen

Since all of these verb forms are different in writing and pronunciation, we really do not need the pronouns to specify the person performing the action. Every verb form already provides this information.

This is why in Spanish we rarely use personal pronouns in a text or in oral speech. We do use them for emphasis, or when the context may lead to confusion if we didn't use a personal pronoun. However, most of the time, the verb form alone is enough (and more than this is considered poor, unnatural style.)

English example: I think they noticed that we didn't attend.
Personal pronouns: 3
Spanish translation: Creo que se dieron cuenta de que no asistimos.
Personal pronouns: 0!

The alternative translation with all personal pronouns "Yo creo que ellos se dieron cuenta de que nosotros no asistimos", even though grammatically correct, is really a pain to read or hear, and is anything but natural in Spanish...

This piece of news is spreading like wildfire among translators, but in case you don't know yet, the successor to EurodicAutom, the European Union terminological database, is already here: IATE (Inter Active Terminology for Europe).

Most translation providers offer a polished and attractive presentation of their language services on their websites and other marketing materials. They all look convincing and credible. When you consider this, the next natural step for you is to think “any of these four providers will do, we’ll just ask all of them for a quote and go with the lowest offer.”

The truth of the matter is, some translation companies do not live up to the expectations they create. They are sometimes better at marketing than translation! And by choosing the lowest bid, you are jeopardizing the outcome even more. I wouldn’t suggest choosing the most expensive option, either. Nothing guarantees you that it will be the best one. The point is, pricing is not a determining factor when it comes to assessing quality. As it happens in many other situations, the proof of the pudding is only in the eating.

So how do you go about assessing a translation provider’s quality? There are several possibilities for this. Many people do not know about them and thus miss an opportunity to make an informed choice and greatly increase their chances of success. Hopefully, this will not be your case after reading this post!

When considering translation providers, you can ask them for a free translation test. You can submit to them a 250-300 word-long text, which would be a part of the texts that you would like to have translated, and ask them to translate it for free as a means to assess their quality. The advantage of this option is that you would be testing their performance with the very materials that you need to have translated. The fact that they can skillfully translate product patents does not necessarily mean that they can translate your marketing copy equally well. So if you send them a sample of your text, you will get an idea of what kind of performance you can expect from them when working with your own materials. The problem with this option is that very often, 300 words of translated material are hardly enough to determine a translation provider’s quality.

Considering this, a probably better option would be asking them for samples of translated materials in the target language and in your specific field: this option will provide you with a greater sample of translated material from your potential translation provider(s). You should make it a point to specifically ask for translated texts related to the materials that you need to have translated. For example, if you need to have an employee handbook translated into Spanish, it would make sense to ask for samples of employee handbooks already translated into Spanish by this translation provider. They will probably mask any brand names and avoid disclosing any sensitive information, and this is a very good sign. It means that they will treat your materials with the same degree of confidentiality.

Okay, so now that I have a translation test or translation samples from 3 or 4 different translation providers, how can I tell which one is the best if I don’t speak the target language? Well, if you have subsidiaries or business partners in the country for which these translations are intended, you can ask them to have a look at them. Or maybe you have employees who are native speakers of your target language. The point is having a language-aware person who is a native speaker of your target language go over those samples and tell you which one would be the most adequate.

This comparison process, rather than the comparison process based only on price considerations, will be your key to success.

Even though this process requires time and effort, it can really pay off. A successful translation will save you headaches, lost opportunities, and financial leakages that you can’t even imagine. And more than anything else, it will portray the same image in your target market that you strived so much to create in your local market. It has served you well up to now, so why compromise it by going with a less-than-brilliant translation provider?

You might wonder why there seems to be so much concern about quality when it comes to translation. Aren’t all translation providers more or less the same?

The truth of the matter is, there is a bit of everything in the translation arena, and probably less excellence than mediocrity.

Let’s face it: translation is not a highly reputed profession. Only if you are well ahead in your learning curve do you know that computer translation is not a good idea, and that speaking two languages is far from enough to make anybody a good translator. There is a generally held belief that translation is easy. Hey, even I was naive enough to choose translation studies because I thought they would be easy for me, considering my knack and love for languages! When you are in this frame of mind, you expect professional translation to be quick and cheap, and you will do everything possible to find a translation provider that matches your budget. And you probably will, no matter how low you set your limit.

On the other hand, high-quality translation providers strive a great deal to find quality translators. They start out by selecting translators with seemingly solid profiles and qualifications, and then they test them, only to keep about 1 out of 10 of them. Top-notch professional translators tend to be on the expensive side because they generate a lot of demand for their services. But some translation providers are less concerned with quality than they are concerned with boosting their bottom line, and hire translators who charge low rates. Why do these translators charge low rates? Usually because the quality of their work does not attract that much business, and instead of trying to study and work harder to improve themselves — which admittedly takes a good deal of time and effort — they choose low pricing as their winning argument. Whether they do this out of immediate financial necessity or lack of pride for what they do, the outcome is more or less the same: substandard translations.

Of course, not many things in this life are completely black or white, but these are general patterns. You can sometimes find good translators who are cheap — though they tend to quickly increase their rates as they are soon flooded with work — and you can find not-so-good translators who charge high rates. How do they manage it? Who knows!

The point of this post is not telling you to go with the most expensive translation provider you can find. The point is rather highlighting the importance of taking appropriate measures to assess your prospective translation provider’s quality, and hopefully caring about price later. With a little bit of luck, this reading will save you some hard trial-and-error steps in your learning curve!

The English words "eligible" and "eligibility" are often translated as "elegible" and "elegibilidad" in Spanish. In my opinion, these are unnecessary and rather ugly calques. These words do exist in Spanish, but they mostly refer to people who can legally be elected (and are thus eligible) for political positions. But it is admittedly not always easy to translate these words into Spanish without using those calques. Depending on the context, these would be some of my suggested options:

Somebody that is "eligible":

- Cumple los requisitos para
- Reúne las condiciones para
- Está cualificado / calificado para
- Tiene derecho a
- Puede optar a
- Puede acceder a
- Es candidato a
- Corresponde a los criterios de selección
- Se ajusta al perfil
- Es idóneo para
- Es apto para

And eligibility may be translated as:

- Derecho a
- Idoneidad para
- Aptitud para
- Cualificación / calificación para

There are probably other "eligible" options, but the ones included here should already help in many contexts. The idea is asking yourself how you would say what the English text is conveying if you were writing in Spanish from scratch rather than translating from English...

Today I posted a comment about some differences between English and Spanish on another translation blog, and it gave me an idea for a new section here. The new section will be called "English-Spanish translation pitfalls" and it will point out key differences between these two languages that any English-Spanish translator should know in order to produce high-quality, smooth and polished translations. I won't promise it will be a weekly section. Some weeks I may write several such posts, some weeks maybe none. But I will try and keep this section alive and keep those posts coming!

... or a change of direction.

I confess that I have my wife read all my posts before publishing them. And her opinion counts a lot. She finds that my blog is gradually taking on a gloomy, depressing tone, and that anybody who reads it will get the impression that I am utterly unhappy, which I am not. As regards Spanish translation, I am indeed disappointed with the current state of things, but if I keep on chewing mediocrity all the time, I'll just end up giving up translation altogether and not trying to do what I can to support it anymore. This is the end of such posts, and this is also the end of the Funny translation of the week section, which is just not that funny to me anymore. From now on, this blog posts will focus on supporting quality translations and high standards and practices, and more or less forgetting about all the rest. That should be more productive and healthy. And there are indeed good Spanish translators and translation companies out there, only not that many — sorry, it's going to take me some time to get the knack of my new direction.

I am considerably shocked. Every once in a while I have a look at what other translation companies are doing, with some degree of interest. I just had a look at a prominent competitor's website — specializing in Spanish translations — with an impressive marketing presentation.

One of their testimonials — provided by a client who is obviously not a native Spanish speaker — points to a website they translated into Spanish. I went and browsed this website and unfortunately couldn't stand it for more than five minutes. The process went like this:

1) I get to the home page of the Spanish version. I see a list of article titles with news about the people that the website is about. I read some of the titles, I like some of the vocabulary choices. Warm feeling... Oh wait! What happened with the fourth one? This one comes with a summary below. I see many different misspellings — lack of accents, of opening question and exclamation marks — plus a text that doesn't flow at all in Spanish, because it has been translated literally from English. Some disappointment, but I manage to excuse at least the lack of Spanish-specific characters: "this is probably the end client entering the translation by hand. No way this is what the translation company provided them with."

(But if this was the case, and if this translation company took pride in their work, they should have pointed this out to their client for correction.)

2) I click on an article title and a full article is displayed. Here I will certainly see what the translation company work was really like. No client would retype a full article. If anything, they would just copy and paste it. I see the Spanish characters there, so my assumption is confirmed. So I start reading. The text does not strike me as being brilliantly written, and I can't go on anymore when I see a very serious misspelling. And this is a misspelling that a simple spell check in Word would have detected. Allowing this to creep into such a prominent website is an utter lack of professionalism. And this is the company that states that all of their translations go through two revisions, totaling 3 people who work on every job: the translator and two reviewers. Well, if this is true, one should wonder about their qualifications...

Excuse the bitter tone, but I don't like the current state of things as far as Spanish translation is concerned. It's seeing things like these that prompted me to write an article about how to determine the quality of a translation provider. I will be sharing it with you very shortly.

Sorry for skipping last week's funny translation. Tough week.

So, today we have an excerpt of a piece of news I found on Translating is an Art weblog, by the Wall Street Journal:

BEIJING — For years, foreigners in China have delighted in the loopy English translations that appear on the nation’s signs. They range from the offensive — “Deformed Man,” outside toilets for the handicapped — to the sublime — “Show Mercy to the Slender Grass,” on park lawns.

Last week, Beijing city officials unveiled a plan to stop the laughter. With hordes of foreign visitors expected in town for the the 2008 Summer Olympics, Beijing wants to cleanse its signs of translation nonsense. For the next eight months, 10 teams of linguistic monitors will patrol the city’s parks, museums, subway stations and other public places searching for gaffes to fix.

If only my humble "Funny translation of the week" section could generate a similar initiative for correct Spanish translations on the Internet! But, in more realistic terms, what I do intend to accomplish is increasing awareness among this blog's readers about the consequences of not choosing your translation provider carefully. We all want to portray the right image, even more so in front of potential customers!

Today we'll go to traffic school... if we don't get lost on our way! (http://spanish.gototrafficschool.com/howtosignup.cfm)

The whole document is interesting, but the first step on the list is the best:

1) Fence to the main page and flatten REGISTER later complete the registation form.

Apparently, many people are wanting to use the word "fence" in Spanish for miscellaneous uses. This time it becomes a verb!

Of course, what they wanted to say was "vaya", which is "go" in the imperative mode. But this serious misspelling totally changes this word's meaning!

As regards "flatten REGISTER", it is probably just a funny mistranslation for "press REGISTER", meaning "click on REGISTER"...

Today we have a Spanish article on immigration found at http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/23310/la_inmigracin_en_utah.html

As usual, I highlighted in yellow some very interesting bits that I will now translate for you:

The "scam" With The Immigratián In Utah

Just to set the tone, but it gets better...

Evén though Utah is located thousands of milles of the border, there are fences of 86,000 immigrants without docutments living in Utah

86,000 immigrants living on a fence? What kind of accomodation is this? Do they get to pay a rent?

Many people do not quite understand, exactly which is that is done the ICE or the "Immigartián and Rights of Customs Coercián".

Hardly surprising they don't understand I would say...

Quality Dialisis Inc. (http://www.qdiinc.com/spanish/rightframe_faqs.htm) delights us with this gem:

Which would back-translate as:

Quality Dialysis Incorporated

Your #1 Staff Assisted the Homemade Dialisis Supplier

Frequently Asked-for Questions

Quality Dialysis Incorporated founded in 1993, to committed deliver professional assisted-staff, responsical, focused patient, hemodialysis and peritoneal dialysis service to patients and their families. We stay focused in our I prince founded of our compani.

Self-explanatory, right?

From Eva's Esthetics (http://evasesthetics.com/espanol/)...

There are several interesting things here, but the items highlighted in yellow are the ones that really stand out:

You may already be familiar with essential oils and know that jojoba oil is one of them. But here you get something completely unheard of, a brand new essential oil: the "joroba oil" ("hump oil").

From now on, dromedaries and (especially) camels of the world, beware! You are wanted!