|
 |
Practise your languages with this letter | ||
Share with:
| ||
 Language Learning Forum : Multilingual Lounge |  | |
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 1 of 45 03 January 2011 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
I have written a letter in English about a made-up topic and I have attempted to translate it into two of my target languages - French and Spanish. I tried to base this letter around the intermediate level so it's not too easy or too difficult. Please have a go in translating it into your target languages and speakers of these languages can correct the students. Good luck!
English (Original version) - Dear James, I send this letter to you to reply to the letter which you sent me last week. I'm pleased to know that your work is going well and that you have settled into your new house in Manchester. I'm good, my University studies are going well although learning languages is difficult. Last August, me and my family went on holiday to Spani, we enjoyed ourselves very much and we saw many beautiful places, we swam in the sea and we loved going to Madrid and we think that it is an incredible city. I met a beautiful Spanish girl there called Maria and we still talk by e-mail and phone, I'm going to see her in Spain next month. I still have the same hobbies, this morning I played a football match and my team won 2-0. I'm still learning languages and I still do boxing. Tomorrow I'm going to the cinema to watch the new movie "Baby Fockers", I love these films! Do you miss London? I hope that you can visit me in the near future my friend? French - Cher James, Je vous envoie cette lettre pour vous de repondre a la lettre que vous m'avez envoye la semaine deniere. Je suis heureux de savoir que votre travail va bien et que vous avez installe dans votre novuelle maison a Manchester. Je vais bien, mes etudes universitaires vont bien, meme si l'apprentissage des langues est difficile. L'aout derniere, moi et ma famille sommes allees a Espagne en vacances. Nous avons apprecie beaucoup et nous avons vu beaucoup des belles lieux, nous avons nages dans la mer et nous avons aime aller a Madrid qui nous avons pense une ville magnifique et agreable. J'ai recontre une belle femme espangole la, appele Maria et nous toujours parlons par email et telephone, je vais la vois le mois prochaine. J'ai toujours les memes hobbies, ce matin, j'ai joue un match de football et mon equipe mous avons gange 2-0. J'ai encore apprendrre les langues et je fais la boxe. Demain, je vais regarder le noveau film "Baby Fockers" j'adore ces films! Avez-vous manquez de vie a Londres? J'espere que vous pouvez me rendre visite dans l'avenir, mon ami. Espanol - Estimado James, Yo envio esta carta para responder a la carta que tu envio la semana pasada. Estoy feliz de saber que su trabajo va bien y que se han asentado en su nuevo casa en Manchester. Estoy bien, mis estudios unversitarios van bien, aunque apprender de idiomas es dificil. El augosto pasado me y mi familia nos fuimos a espana en vancaciones, nos gusto mucho y vimos muchos lugares hermosas, nos nado en el mar y nos encanto ir a Madrid y creemos que es una ciudad marvilosa y agradable. Yo conoci a una hermosa chica espanola se llama Maria y todavia hablamos por correo electronico y telefona, me voy a verla el proximo mes. Todavia tengo las mismas aficiones, esta manana yo jugo/he jugado un partido de futbol y mi equipo nos gano/nos ganabamos 2-0. Todavia apprender idiomas y todavia yo hago el boxeo. A manana, me voy al cine a ver la nueva pelicula "Baby Fockers", me encantan esas peliculas! Echas de menos la vida en Londres? Yo espero que puedes visitar a mi en el futuro proximo, mi amigo. русский - Coming soon when I have more time available! Edited by Jon1991 on 03 January 2011 at 9:06pm 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| Biscotti Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5130 days ago 29 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish | Message 2 of 45 03 January 2011 at 9:42pm | IP Logged | |||||
I like these kind of threads :) I will have a go at Italian when I get the time. Querido James, Te envio esta carte para contestar a la carta que me enviaste la semana pasada. Me hace muy contento saber que tu trabajo va bien y que te has establecido en tu nueva casa en Manchester. Estoy bien, mis estudios de universidad van muy bien pero aprender idiomas es muy difícil. El agosto pasado, yo y mi familia fuimos de vacaciones a España, nos disfrutamos mucho y vimos muchos lugares bonitos, nadamos en el mar y nos encantó ir a Madrid y pensamos que es una ciudad increíble. Conocí a una chica española allí llamada Maria y todavía hablamos por correo electrónico y teléfono. Voy a verla en España el mes que viene. Todavía tengo los mismos pasatiempos, esta mañana jugué un partido de fútbol y mi equipo ganó 2-0. Estoy aprendiendo idiomas todavía, y sigo a boxear. Mañana voy al cine a ver la película nueva 'Baby Fockers', ¡me encantan esas pelis! ¿Echas de menos Londres? ¿Espero que puedas visitarme en el futuro mi amigo? Biscotti Edited by Biscotti on 03 January 2011 at 9:47pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Iolanthe Diglot Senior Member Netherlands Joined 5641 days ago 410 posts - 482 votes Speaks: English*, DutchC1 Studies: Turkish, French | Message 3 of 45 03 January 2011 at 9:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
|
Dutch -
Beste Jimmy, Ik stuur deze brief als antwoord op de brief die je me vorige week heb gestuurd. Ik ben blij dat het goed gaat me je werk en dat je in je nieuw huis in Manchester gesetteld bent. Het gaat goed met mij. Mijn studie gaat goed maar taal leren is echt moeilijk. Vorige augustus ging ik op vakantie met mijn familie naar Spanje. We hadden heel veel lol en zagen veel mooie plekken. We zwommen in de zee en vonden het leuk om naar Madrid te gaan. Het is een geweldige stad! Ik ontmoette een lekkere Spaanse kerel die Pablo heet en wij praten nog steeds per email en telefoon (stiekem maar. vertel dit niet aan mijn vriendje). Ik ga volgende maand naar Spanje toe om hem te zien. Ik heb nog steeds dezelfde hobbies. Dit morgen heb ik solitaire gespeld en ik won van de computer. Ik leer talen nog steeds en ik cultiveer nog een kruidentuin op de balkon. Morgen ga ik naar de cinema om naar de nieuwe film 'Baby Fockers' te kijken. Ik vind deze films zo leuk! Mis je Londen? Ik hoop dat je me komt bezoeken in de nabije toekomst! I'm sorry, I had to change it a bit because I'm a girl and I dont like football or boxing :P That was fun! 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Jon1991 Groupie United Kingdom Joined 5365 days ago 98 posts - 126 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, French, Russian | Message 4 of 45 03 January 2011 at 10:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
Glad you like it, I think it's a fantastic way to practise your languages, it made me think hard about tenses. Maybe I'll make the vocabulary more challenging next time as I thought it was too easy in terms of vocab :) 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Biscotti Triglot Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5130 days ago 29 posts - 48 votes Speaks: English*, German, Spanish | Message 5 of 45 04 January 2011 at 11:47am | IP Logged | |||||
There's another thread like this one if you are looking for ideas. And we should definitely do more of these. http://how-to-learn-any-language.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?T ID=5926&PN=1&TPN=1 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5130 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 45 04 January 2011 at 3:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
It may indeed be a great way to practice your writing, but I don't think it's all that useful without any actual corrections. Both this thread and the other thread referenced above have no corrections made to any of the entries (well, the other thread is 9 pages and I didn't look through every page). So we're left with a lot of mistakes that people may reference, thinking the text is correct. I like lang-8 for things like this, although you also run the risk of getting incorrect feedback there from less-than-advanced students. R. == 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5866 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 7 of 45 04 January 2011 at 8:05pm | IP Logged | |||||
OK. I'll contribute some corrections to the English version. > I'm good, my University studies are going well although learning languages is difficult. I'm well. My university studies are going well although learning languages is difficult. [Check the difference between good and well. Good generally means good at something. Well means healthy, happy, etc.] > Last August, me and my family went on holiday to Spani, Last August, my family and I went on holiday to Spain. > we enjoyed ourselves very much and we saw many beautiful places, we swam in the sea and we loved going to Madrid and we think that it is an incredible city. We enjoyed ourselves very much and we saw many beautiful places. We swam in the sea and we loved going to Madrid. We think that it is an incredible city. > I met a beautiful Spanish girl there called Maria and we still talk by e-mail and phone, I'm going to see her in Spain next month. I met a beautiful Spanish girl there called Maria. We still talk by e-mail and phone. I'm going to see her in Spain next month. > I still have the same hobbies, this morning I played a football match and my team won 2-0. I'm still learning languages and I still do boxing. I still have the same hobbies. This morning I played a football match and my team won 2-0. I'm still learning languages and I still do boxing. > Tomorrow I'm going to the cinema to watch the new movie "Baby Fockers", I love these films! Tomorrow I'm going to the cinema to watch the new movie "Baby Fockers". I love these films! > Do you miss London? I hope that you can visit me in the near future my friend? Do you miss London? I hope that you can visit me in the near future, my friend? [Still a bit awkward. Maybe the comma helps.] The main issues are running a whole bunch of thoughts together, separated by commas and "and"s. The commas are definitely not correct. Put a period. Start a new Sentence with a capital. The ands are just not good style. Often success in a second language begins with attention to grammar, spelling, punctuation and detail in the first language. Edited by tommus on 04 January 2011 at 8:08pm 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| egill Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5696 days ago 418 posts - 791 votes Speaks: Mandarin, English* Studies: German, Spanish, Dutch | Message 8 of 45 04 January 2011 at 10:34pm | IP Logged | |||||
There is absolutely nothing wrong with saying, "I'm good." This so-called rule has nothing to do with grammar—good is just a run of the mill predicative adjective here. Furthermore, critiquing the style of a purposefully simple letter, written by a native speaker is attacking a straw man, which you seem delighted to do with sanctimonious zeal. 14 persons have voted this message useful |
|  | 
Printable version
|
| Copyright 2024 FX Micheloud - All rights reserved No part of this website may be copied by any means without my written authorization. |
