Translation Language Culture

"Translation Language Culture": One of the myths about translation is that it merely involves a transfer of words from one language to another. Nothing could be farther from the truth. It's ideas that are transferred and these ideas can't be looked up in some culture dictionary.

So, in order to understand what translation is, it's essential to understand the following:

translation = language + culture

As translators, we are always worried about not only getting the right meaning across, but getting the right meaning across to those for whom the message is intended. If you don't understand the cultural biases and historical perspectives of the target audience, you're doing your client a huge disservice.

It's easy to look up the translation of a certain word in a dictionary, but if you don't have an understanding of the target audience, there's a greater chance you might pick the wrong word to use in your translation, for example.

You might not think an incorrectly translated word or two would be a big deal, but it's not the words you're getting wrong. You're translation is a reflection on your client, and not a good reflection at that.

You're translation says the client doesn't care enough about his target audience to get the language right. Are they apt to believe anything the client has to say after that? I don't think so. And I don't think you'll have much translation to do after that, either.

So it's essential to get an understanding of the various cultures for whom you are translating. This can be done in many ways, probably the best of which is to live among those for whom you're translations would be intended. Short of that would be to frequently visit such places, keep up-to-date on news concerning them, reading in magazines, and in short, soaking up everything you can.

While I can't send you on a trip to Latin America to learn about the various cultures there, I am willing to provide some interesting tidbits of information on various aspects of Hispanic culture in general. I hope you find them useful.

• Hispanic Heritage Month: a short introduction with dates of independence for Spanish-speaking countries
• Spanish spelling bee: spelling bees in Spanish are becoming more and more popular
• Spanish Holidays: A list of some major holidays for 20 Spanish-speaking countries.
  
  • Christmas carols in Spanish
  • Spanish Christmas songs
  • Merry Christmas in Spanish
• Spanish currency and currency codes: list of Spanish currency codes for Spanish-speaking countries

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