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 Language Learning Forum : Questions About Your Target Languages |  | |
| kristinepeterso Newbie United States ccjk.com/ Joined 3542 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes | Message 1 of 9 20 January 2015 at 11:12am | IP Logged | ||
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I need to translate this sentence into English. Please help!
“on n'apprend pas aux vieux singes à faire des grimaces” 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6527 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 9 20 January 2015 at 11:15am | IP Logged | ||
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Literally "One doesn't teach old monkeys to make faces". It means that old and experienced people don't need to take advice, especially from arrogant youngsters.
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| patrickwilken Senior Member Germany radiant-flux.net Joined 4478 days ago 1546 posts - 3200 votes Studies: German | Message 3 of 9 20 January 2015 at 11:40am | IP Logged | ||
Why is your link to a professional translation service? Do you work professionally as a translator? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6648 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 4 of 9 21 January 2015 at 10:30am | IP Logged | ||
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you can't teach an old dog new tricks
... but like patrickwilken I also wonder why somebody with a professional translation service on their profile would need to ask. Btw Mythbusters have busted this myth - you CAN teach an old dog new tricks. They didn't try to teach monkeys to make new facial expressions, though. Edited by Iversen on 21 January 2015 at 10:35am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| kristinepeterso Newbie United States ccjk.com/ Joined 3542 days ago 5 posts - 6 votes | Message 5 of 9 21 January 2015 at 11:31am | IP Logged | ||
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Yeah, I'm linked to a professional translation services but I'm a English, French and
Spanish language learner. Thanks for the translation and your help. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6527 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 6 of 9 21 January 2015 at 1:06pm | IP Logged | ||
This isn't a good translation, though. As I understand it, the French expression means that old people don't NEED to take advice from impudent youngsters, whereas the English expression means that old people are set in their ways and UNABLE to learn new things. The French expression is positive towards old people, while the English one is negative. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Speakeasy Senior Member Canada Joined 3997 days ago 507 posts - 1098 votes Studies: German | Message 7 of 9 25 January 2015 at 5:20pm | IP Logged | ||
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Le Petit Robert provides the following “sense” of the expression “on n'apprend pas aux vieux singes à faire des grimaces” which dates from 1829 as “on n'apprend pas les ruses à une personne pleine d’experience” thereby suggesting that “old people don't NEED to take advice” might be the clearest sense. Thus, the rather inelegant English equivalent would be “don’t teach your grandmother to suck eggs”, the original of which dates from 1707. Nonetheless, most English-speakers would accept "you can't teach an old dog new tricks" as being equivalent, or at least relatively so.
As to the suggestion that professional translators adjudicate in this matter (the logical fallacy here is the “appeal to authority”), might I suggest that translation is an ART, that is at best a DISCIPLINE, but that it is most certainly NOT a SCIENCE? 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Dark_Sunshine Diglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5710 days ago 340 posts - 357 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 8 of 9 07 March 2015 at 9:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Don't teach your grandmother to suck eggs" would be the equivalent idiom here. It's an
expression used to admonish somebody for having attempted to give advice or instruction to somebody who is already more competent or experienced than the person offering the advice. "You can't teach an old dog new tricks" is in no way equivalent. The meaning here is pretty transparent, suggesting that the person is much too old and lacks the capacity to learn anything new, so your efforts are wasted. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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