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<\/a><\/p>\nNot only titles but the text can be confusingly translated. In Proof<\/i>, sandbox<\/i> was given as tobog\u00e1n<\/i>, nerds<\/i> as cerebritos<\/i>, and glasses<\/i> (of the drinking kind) oddly translated as gafas<\/i> instead of vasos<\/i>. One wonders if a machine translated that one. Describing the wake for Anthony Hopkin\u2019s deceased math professor character, the innocuous \u201cIt\u2019ll be nice\u201d was translated as \u201cSer<\/i>\u00e1<\/em> divertido<\/i>\u201d (\u201cIt\u2019ll be fun\u201d). Okay, it\u2019s hard to get these things right, but a nice wake is not the same as a fun wake.<\/p>\n In a commercial for coming attractions, Arnie\u2019s famous line \u201cI\u2019ll be back\u201d in The Terminator<\/i> was reduced to \u201cVuelve<\/i>.\u201d I\u2019ll have to watch to see how Hasta la vista, Baby<\/i> comes out. Jack Nicholson\u2019s famous \u201cHere\u2019s Johny\u201d turned into \u201cAqui esta Jack<\/i>.\u201d Indeed. The Shining<\/i> itself was El Resplandor<\/i>, a direct and simple poetic translation.<\/p>\n It\u2019s fun and jarring to see the differences. Idioms are obviously not the same in two different cultures. It can rain cats and dogs in Canada and the U.S., whereas in Spain it rains seas (llueve a mares<\/i>). In English, \u201cSitting on your hands\u201d becomes \u201cno te cruces de brazos<\/i>.\u201d Task force<\/i> is grupo especial<\/i>. Charity is ONG. The World Series turns into The Davis Cup. Some words, of course, are untranslatable, and are left unchanged in their new languages. Many are of the food variety: chorizo, fabada, espicha (an Asturian cider fiesta<\/em>).<\/p>\n Hopefully the humour, the romance, the sentiment is kept, but sometimes the translation comes out better. In Did you Hear About the Morgans?<\/i>, the state of Connecticut was translated as \u201c100 metres from Fifth Avenue\u201d arguably funnier than the original when Sarah Jessica Parker\u2019s character Meryl Morgan jokes that she never gets far from her Midtown Manhattan home. In the same film, Applebees was McTortillas, Amish was budista<\/i>, Bloomingdales was rebajas<\/i> \u2013 to me all much funnier than their originals \u2013 although the humour of taxidermist with the stress on taxi didn\u2019t quite make it to taxidermista<\/i>.<\/p>\n Names are fun too. John is one of the most common names around and being of biblical origin is translated into most languages: Juan (Spanish), Se\u00e1n (Irish), Jean (French), Giovanni (Italian), \u2026. The list is as wide as the world. I love my more mysterious sounding Asturian name, Xuan, where the X is a Sh sound. Most biblical names are also found elsewhere. And flowers. Daisy is Margarita in Spanish. Heather is Brezo. Lovely names, and to me, more exotic in translation.<\/p>\n Some rules help the language learner to take a stab at easy translations, especially when grouped according to type: -ible, -able, -tion, -ist, -ent, and -ant endings comprise over 1000 words. Possible becomes posible<\/i>, agreeable agradable<\/i>, conversation conversaci\u00f3n<\/i>, Buddhist budista<\/i>, decadent decadente<\/i>, dominant dominante<\/i>. As Christian Slater\u2019s hotel manager Daryl Timmons<\/a> in Bobby<\/i> says \u201cIt\u2019s almost like you add an e to the end of every English word.\u201d Not quite. But it\u2019s a start.<\/p>\n Language is owned by all of us, changing, morphing, twisting and turning with every immigrant, ex-pat, and new student. About his latest story, Dublin\u00e9s<\/i>, a Spanish graphic comic version of wordsmith extraordinaire James Joyce\u2019s Dubliners<\/i>, writer Alfonso Zapico said that a lot of readers got the urge to read the original version after reading his adapted translation, although some in Ireland felt that \u201cit\u2019s kind of wrong that the author is not Irish.\u201d*<\/p>\n I’m not so sure. I think the n\u00famero uno<\/em> ex-pat supreme himself would have been extremely proud that another language brought readers to his Irish shore.<\/p>\n In his play Translations, the Irish playwright Brian Friel wrote about the difficulty of describing place names in different languages and the meanings for native and visitor alike. Is the ancient local place name Poll na gCaorach (literally \u201chole of … Continue reading * Check out \u201cA Not So Comic Journey<\/a>\u201d Tereixa Constenla, El Pa\u00eds<\/i>, November 13, 2013.<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"