| Most Recent Messages of Each Discussion |
Created by |
ayuda me
i am english pseaker want ing to live in a spanish speaking country so need help with spanish
thaks chris
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
chris h.
July 3, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Word for word, from the Spanish
Another cute one from this month's edition of "Selecciones"
Pregunta la profesora:
-- Juanito, conjúgueme el verbo "nadar".
--Yo nado, tú nadas,él nada… --dice el niño gritando.
--Más bajo, Juanito! –le pide la profesora.
--Yo buceo, tú buceas, él bucea…
The teacher asks,
Johnny, conjugate the verb, "to swim" for me.
"I swim, you swim, he swims…" shouts the boy.
Lower, Johnny! Pleads the teacher.
"I dive, you dive, he dives…."
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Mark S.
March 31, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Wild coincidence
Funny, I ran into this one later the same day in Spanish.
> At a cocktail party, one woman said to another,
Aren't you wearing your wedding ring on the wrong finger?" Yes, I am. I
married the wrong man."
En "Selecciones" Abril 2005, le dice,
En una reunión, mientras conversaba con una mujer, me llamó la atención el anillo que llevaba en el dedo medio de la mano izquierda.
--Es mi anillo de matrimonio --señaló.
--¿No lo lleva en el dedo equivocado? --le pregunté.
--¡Ah, sí! Lo que pasa es que me casé con el hombre equivocado.
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Mark S.
March 31, 2005
# Msgs: 2
Latest: March 31, 2005
|
Pun with modern cooking
Lo encontré hoy con un chiste bastante divertido en el periódico "Selecciones," que es el traducción español de "Reader's Digest." Ese chiste, por casualidad, es tal divertido en inglés como en español.
"Tengo un niño de tres años, quién es muy hablante. Cada vez que la alarma de la microondas soña, me dice, 'esta es el tucroondas!' "
I ran across a cute joke today (in "Selecciones" Magazine – the Spanish-language version of "Reader's Digest,") which happens to work just as well in English as it does in Spanish:
I have a three-year-old son who is very chatty. Every time the microwave alarm goes off, he says, 'There goes the yourcrowave!' "
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: Spanish; English
|
|
Mark S.
March 31, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
i want to learn any cool idiom
hi my name is janice im from argentina and i´d like to learn differents idioms , make friends and im intrasted in other cultures, i speak spanish , hebrou, and a little of frech ..so please conect with me and i can teach you what i know and you to me .. bye .. janu!!
|
Language pair: Spanish; English
|
|
janu ..
March 22, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Re:Translating jokes: Re:Crispbread / Näkkileipä
> I’m afraid I don’t speak Finnish,
> so I can't help you with your
> translation. But somehow I missed
> the joke.
>
A crumb (rather than "a piece") is
homonymous with "darling" in Finnish.
Puti
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Juha-Petri T.
March 21, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 22, 2005
|
Translating jokes: Re:Crispbread / Näkkileipä
I’m afraid I don’t speak Finnish, so I can't help you with your translation. But somehow I missed the joke. I look forward to seeing what another Finnish English speaker has to say about your translation.
Of course, the problem may not be with your translation. Some jokes just don’t translate well. For example, we have one in English:
Riddle: What did one firecracker say to the other?
Answer: My pop is bigger than your pop!
This is cute in English because “pop” can either mean the popping sound that the firecracker makes, or it could mean the fathers of the firecrackers, since "pop" is one way of saying "dad" in English. Because in American culture children on the schoolyard often compete by bragging about their fathers, the answer to the riddle has a clever double meaning in the dialogue between the firecrackers. Another example:
Riddle: What did the tablecloth say to the table?
Answer: Don’t move! I’ve got you covered!
Like the first riddle, this one depends heavily not only on English language but on our culture. The riddle has a literal meaning, that the table cloth is covering the table, which isn’t particularly interesting. But the fact that the expression, “I’ve got you covered” is also an idiom we use in gunfights to communicate to someone that we have a weapon pointed at them and are ready to shoot if they misbehave turns this very commonplace situation into an action adventure. Not only is the table ready for dinner, but it’s life may be in danger if it tries to run away.
Your riddle sounds like it comes from a similar style, and because it seems so strange to me in English, it makes me wonder if the Finnish for “My pieces” might not have some alternative meaning in Finnish that doesn’t exist in English.
Sometimes there are ways to translate these jokes by looking for a similar relationship in the second language/culture that conveys a similar humorous association. For example, I’m not aware that they have a word in Spanish that means an exploding noise and also one’s father. But it happens that Spanish has another word like their word for father, which means potato. So if I wanted to translate the joke into Spanish, I might try recasting it so that maybe one farmer says to another farmer, “mi papa es mejor que el tuyo,” My papa/potato is better than yours.” Perhaps not an entirely successful translation, since it's easier to imagine firecrackers as children on a schoolyard than farmers, who we think of as adults. And of course, I don't know if children in Spanish-speaking cultures aren't given to duels at bragging about their fathers on the schoolyard, which is critical to the humor here; but perhaps you see my meaning.
Good luck!
Mark Springer
Sacramento CA USA
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
Mark S.
March 18, 2005
# Msgs: 4
Latest: March 22, 2005
|
Re:Hello to all
hi zulfi
i hope that you are fine, mi name is fernando and i want to practice my english and to teach spanish
i am married and we have two babies ,i woulk like to learn a lot of english .i am from cali colombia
regards
fernando
|
Language pair: English; Spanish
|
|
fernando h.
March 17, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Re:Japanese? Nihongo?
Nihongo? Yes! Gold membership? No... Gomenne
But if you have anything specific to ask I can help you here! I'm 15.
Where are all the gold members? Hmm...
Peace
|
Language pair: Japanese; Spanish
|
|
Camille T.
March 15, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
Una Mensaje bastante antiguo
Lo encontré a un mensaje bastante antiguo, el numero 2283, escrito por Javier Bustamante en August 19, 2002. Lo escribió sobre palabras en lenguas diferentes que parecen mismos, pero que quieren decir cosas muy diferentes, de vez en cuando algo bastante ineducado.
Cómo he estudié más que una o dos lenguas, tengo algo experiencia con tal cosas, y lo contesté a esa mensaje.
Por eso, ahora les cuento sobre eso. Los comentarios de Javier (en inglés) son interesante y algo graciosos, y ojalá que las cosas que tuvo para añadir estan bastante interesantes también. Así que, si creen que es algo interesante, buscan la mensaje 2283, leen lo y sus contestas. Será bastante interesante si ustedes también tienen mas cosas para añadir.
¡Hasta Luego!
Mark Springer
Sacramento, CA USA
|
Language pair: Spanish; English
|
|
Mark S.
February 20, 2005
# Msgs: 1
|
