[nabs-l] Spanish translation

[V Nork]

Dear Harry, Thanks for your illuminating answer  to my earlier question re 
spanish translation programs.  My spanish needs to be refurbished, and I 
wanted to ask you if you could recommend some Spanish phrasebooks for me as 
a  good starting point.  In print, there are great  sounding phrase books I 
have seen like "just Enough Spanish" and "Street Spanish",  "Spanish for 
housewives" and on and on.  When I went to find some phrasebooks  I could 
use as a visually impaired person , I seemed to have little luck.  My idea 
in getting some phrasebooks is that the verbs are already conjugated in a 
constructed phrase, and the grammar and syntax can be modeled, so it is a 
good memory jogger.  Living in Southern California, I find my vocabulary for 
nouns and adjectives is still not bad, it is just the grammar I want to work 
on.  So if you know of any Spanish phrasebooks that are accessible, I would 
be very pleased.   I think I am  an intermediate to advanced level right now 
in Spanish. Take care, Ginnie
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Harry Hogue" <harryhogue at yahoo.com>
To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
<nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Friday, October 09, 2009 8:33 PM
Subject: Re: [nabs-l] Spanish translation


Hello,

Without going into great complicated detail, the bottom line is this:

Dictionaries, online translators, and other translation software packages 
are used mainly to translate a short word or common phrase and are not 
designed to translate longer passages of texts such as plays, novels, 
essays, and the like.  No tool exists to meet this need for a very simple 
reason:  the human translator is always superior to a computer for the 
reason that a human can select the phrasing that works within a given 
context, a nonstandard but nevertheless appropriate phrasal verb 
construction in place of a more generalized and widely comprehended single 
two-partEnglish verb (i.e. to manage vs. to deal with), and, also, the less 
widely understood but equally important reason--culture.  Culture plays a 
vital role in foreign language text translation, literary interpretation, 
and sociological context.  A very simple example of this may be seen with 
idiomatic expressions:  it's raining cats and dogs, give me a break, take a 
load off, etc.  Each of
 these expressions will have their own variations in a given foreign 
language, and this results from the way the people, who collectively form 
the culture, interpret their environment.  The environment, of course, is 
effected by geography, climate, livestock, varieties of foodstuffs, and so 
forth.
Now.  Was that sufficiently far more than you wanted to know?  <smile>


If you've any more questions, please do not hesitate to contact me either on 
or off list at harryhogue at yahoo.com.

Best,

Harry Hogue

--- On Fri, 10/9/09, V Nork <ginisd at sbcglobal.net> wrote:

> From: V Nork <ginisd at sbcglobal.net>
> Subject: [nabs-l] Spanish translation
> To: "National Association of Blind Students mailing list" 
> <nabs-l at nfbnet.org>
> Date: Friday, October 9, 2009, 9:22 PM
> Dear list, Does anyone have any
> advice on seeking Spanish to English translations on
> line? I am enrolled in a three unit college classin
> Chicano Literature here in San Diego, California.
> While most of the texts were written in English or are in
> translation to English, a couple of the texts have
> sizeable Spanish passages interspersed within the
> English text. For example, in the works of Luis
> Valdez, his acto or short play called Soldado Razo is mostly
> Spanish, and without knowing the language, you miss most of
> the characterization and plotline. I was lucky enough
> to find a bilingual student to translate the short playfor
> me, but I wonder if there is a way to translate spanish
> passages into English that is better than the google
> language tool I have tried on the main page of Google.
> I have taken a fair amount of Spanish, but it is a bit
> rusty. Most of the class is bilingual, so I
> am finding it interesting to experience, even in a minor
> way, the obstacles faced by many ESL students on a daily
> basis. Thanks for any thoughts on a translation
> program or utility, Ginnie
> _______________________________________________
> nabs-l mailing list
> nabs-l at nfbnet.org
    > http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your
> account info for nabs-l:
> http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/harryhogue%40yahoo.com
>




_______________________________________________
nabs-l mailing list
nabs-l at nfbnet.org
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nabs-l_nfbnet.org
To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for 
nabs-l:
http://www.nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nabs-l_nfbnet.org/ginisd%40sbcglobal.net