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Assimil Using Spanish - A Cautionary Note | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6925 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 1 of 59 29 May 2006 at 7:38am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Some background: I've recently picked up this course again and had got as far as Lesson 12 where I was listening to the Exercise sentences (and following along in the book).
The last 2 sentences on the audio didn't match the English textbook which confused me somewhat. However I resolved to check them against Perfectionnement Espagnol at the first available opportunity - The audio I bought came together with the French textbook and the English one was purchased separately at a later date. I haven't had any other mismatches to-date but there may be others - that's cautionary note 1 because the French version was ok. Note 2 comes when I opened the french version of the course book to check the french text as mentioned above. The book, by coincidence fell open at Lesson 4 and I happened to glance at the notes on the following: 6. La paella es un plato de arroz guisado con diferentes legumbres y trozos de carne o pescado, mariscos, etc., aromatizado con azafrán.(4)(5) The key verb is in bold - guisar. Here is the accompanying note in the French version: (5) Cocinar: cuisiner. Lorsque l'on fait cuire ou mijoter les aliments, qu'on les accommode spécialement avec des sauces, on parle de guisar. L'emploi de guisar sous-entend donc une préparation plus élaborée. This note isn't in the English version at all and since I've gone back and re-examined the first 14 lessons, there are other variations not all of which can be put down to the difference in approach required for teaching via a different source language. There are some entries (but minor ones) in the English that are missing from the French and vice versa (again minor). However, with the missing entry for guisar and one other I also found, I would advise people who have both course books to check the notes on both. If you don't have both then I would recommend looking up any unfamiliar words or expressions that have no notes against them in a good quality dictionary in case any nuances of meaning are going to be missed. Andy. Edited by Andy E on 29 May 2006 at 7:39am 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7027 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 2 of 59 29 May 2006 at 8:19am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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In Using Spanish, lesson eight, exercise 5, the book says "Go on working, it is 10 to". The audio matches the cartoon on page 38, "Siga insistiendo, es una llamada muy importante".
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| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6925 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 3 of 59 29 May 2006 at 2:11pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
I missed that one Luke - but again the French book matches the audio. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7027 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 4 of 59 29 May 2006 at 7:52pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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The English translations in Using Spanish seem odd at times to me. Generally, I've figured they were more UK/European, but I'm not sure about this one from lesson 8:
A unos pasos de allí, penetra en su despacho. A few steps from there he penetrates into his office. Although that may be a literal translation, it wouldn't be used in the US. Typically "enters" would be used, rather than "penetrates into". Edited by luke on 29 May 2006 at 7:54pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 6926 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds | Message 5 of 59 29 May 2006 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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That's a bad translation where a word that sounded like the Spanish word was picked!
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| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6925 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 6 of 59 30 May 2006 at 2:14am | IP Logged | ||||||||
I think Nigel's got it spot on there. It's not something you would say in the UK either. I had started to wonder the opposite - that is whether, in fact, some of the translations were for a US audience. For example, another odd one was from Lesson 3 (I think) - the noun intermitente translated as trafficator. Is that a US word? In the UK, we would use indicator. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| luke Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7027 days ago 3133 posts - 4351 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Esperanto, French | Message 7 of 59 30 May 2006 at 4:43am | IP Logged | ||||||||
In the US we'd say, "traffic light", or "stop light", assuming that's what a trafficator is. There are examples of lazy or poor translations like this in practically every lesson in Using Spanish. Do you experience the same puzzlement over the translations, or is your French good enough to work around the shortcomings in the English translation? By the way, the assimil.com web page suggests the book has 432 pages. Mine has 404, although the ISBN matches the one on the web site. I've got the small hardcover version of the book. Inside the last page it says it was printed in April 1996. Edited by luke on 30 May 2006 at 6:07pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Andy E Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 6925 days ago 1651 posts - 1939 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French | Message 8 of 59 30 May 2006 at 5:33am | IP Logged | ||||||||
Ah I can safely assume that "trafficator" isn't US English either - other equivalents would be the "turn signal", "turn indicator" or "blinker" on a car rather than "traffic light".
I am frequently confused by what the translation is intended to convey. Going forward, I'm going to rely on the notes from both the French and English versions to try and ensure that I don't miss things. I am finding that I dislike listening to the audio while reading the English (possibly because of its often non-sensical nature) and that I am better served reading through the Spanish and where necessary providing my own translations. In addition, I am also trying to avoid the source languages in their entirety since I'm attempting not to translate at all but just to "hear" the Spanish.
Ditto. The style of cover matches my copies of Using French and El Catalán sin Esfuerzo. All the other Assimil courses I have a "newer" look to them - including Perfectionnement Espagnol even though the print date inside the cover is earlier than 1996 - I think there have been some minor revisions to some of the courses and the French got some updates which haven't been reflected in the English version. Andy. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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