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      Lost In Translation | Spanish Idioms Jump to content
      Linguaholic

      Lost In Translation


      goop

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      When I talk with my Spanish friends and they help me translate what I am saying, I often feel like their translation strips my statement of all emotion.  Sometimes I think that maybe I use too many idioms in my native tongue and so the translation lacks for me.  How do Spanish speakers show emotion?  Are there idioms that reflect nervousness or heartbreak in Spanish?  If so, what region of the Latin speaking world would they specifically be understood?

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      • 3 months later...

      Of course we show a lot emotion, lol.  Spanish is probably one of the most effusive languages out there... odds are your Spanish speaking friends are not that good at translating slang.  They shouldn't feel bad though, because even some translation pro (even the people translating subtitles for TV) make huge mistakes from time to time... sometimes they pick the less favorable translation, over one that doesn't quite fit the bill...it happens to the best of us.

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      • 3 weeks later...

      I have the same problem with Spanish: idioms.  Does anyone know of any good books or websites for this?  I like Spanish music and much of them use expressions that make no sense when I translate them.  I figure that I'm translating incorrectly or they are idioms. 

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      • 1 month later...

      I think sometimes the literal translation does not make too much sense in English so they have to translate it to what it would mean to us. Do you understand? Sometimes if you translate literally then it gets lost.

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      • 3 weeks later...

      I work as a translator and as someone already said, we all make mistakes. The tricky part of translating is that you have to be able to capture the essence of the text. A literal, word-by-word translation is no good, unless is a technical document. For songs, novels, poems, conversations, movies, etc. you need to have an outstanding command of both languages you are translating to be able to capture the essence, the feeling and not only the words.

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      • 2 months later...

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