I’m a bit late posting today as well, but it’s my daughter’s birthday so I was busy with celebrations for her. The Japan trip is also coming up way too soon and I still have a lot to prepare.
Read More »Typo Tuesday, Week 9 — City of Love: Paris Edition
It’s Monday again! Exciting, right? For today’s Malapropism Monday I’d like to bring up yet another writing and speech pattern that bugs me! I know you’re dying to find out about it.
Today’s topic is the use of “try and ____” vs. “try to ____.” Did you know that these are not interchangeable? People often say “try and ____” when they should say “try to ____.” Or, at least in my opinion, they should…
If you’re like me, you don’t have enough hours in the day to get done all the things you wish you could do. Does that sound familiar?
One thing that’s important to me is increasing my knowledge of the Bible. Don’t worry; this is not a proselytizing post! But it is a post about another resource for practicing languages if you’re open to learning more about the Bible, even if just to study it as literature.
A few days ago, I joined the year 2010 (only a few years late!) and made an Instagram account. It’s called, unsurprisingly, leethelinguist.
I made my first post, and what did I notice a few minutes later? A typo! I blame it on my iPhone’s autocorrect! I’d mentioned how my day job was having a technical problem on their end, so I had more time to write posts. Of course, it autocorrected to “there end,” which is something I would instantly notice anywhere! And I did notice it right away but only after I had nervously posted the photo. Before any of my *zillions* of followers could see it and criticize me, I quickly commented on the photo that autocorrect had gotten me!
Before I got married, I used to play video games. I loved Nintendo, Super Nintendo and Game Boy back in the day! This is one of the things my husband liked about me when we met. When I lived in Japan, I even bought the Game Boy Advance that was a lovely pearl pink color, which at the time was only available in Japan; I got the old-school Zelda and Mario rereleases that came out for it at the time. I know, I’m dating myself!
Once we had our first daughter, I had no more time for games. Well, more accurately, I didn’t prioritize them, much to my husband’s chagrin. He was in grad school, I was working and taking care of the baby, and we were exhausted. To be honest, I still don’t really have the desire to prioritize games like I used to — I can always think of a hundred other things to do! I know this annoys him because he makes video games for a living. Sorry, Honey!
A week or so ago, I came across an iPhone game called City of Love: Paris, by a developer called Ubisoft. I can’t even remember how I heard of it! Maybe I was researching materials for learning French? I have no idea. Anyway, the concept sounded intriguing: you’re an American woman working in Paris and solving a mystery while enjoying French culture and possibly finding video game romance. Oh là là!
Bonjour, mes amis! French is by far my weakest language, though I use it every day for my work! I’m able to do that because in my job I never have to speak French, and I only rarely have to write it. When I do write it, I don’t have to write long, complex passages of prose, but rather short phrases and sentences.
That said, I do read French pretty well as long as the topic is something common enough and not too full of specialized jargon. My short time of formal French study combined with my strong Spanish skills and a decent amount of independent study have made French enjoyable enough for me that I do want to continue learning more. Read More »French Study Resources
¡Saludos a todos mis amigos hispanoparlantes! Bueno, por fin escribo mi primera entrada completamente en español. Hoy mientras navegaba por Facebook vi una palabra que… Read More »¡Encuentro Erratas en Español También!
It’s Thursday, which means that soon the weekend will be upon us! Yesterday’s post brought up a point that I wanted to explore further. The… Read More »Domestication vs. Foreignization vs. Localization
For today’s post, I wanted to translate an article I came across which I found interesting. It’s from the news website El País. I decided to try using the CAT (computer-assisted translation) tool I mentioned in yesterday’s post, but I gave up after a couple lines. The translations it produced were very clunky and I’m sure I’d end up spending more time cleaning up the translation than I would just translating from scratch!
Anyway, here we go! Here’s the original article in Spanish: http://cultura.elpais.com/cultura/2017/01/17/actualidad/1484673807_325607.html
The Difficult Translation of Humor
Getting Homer Simpson to be just as funny in Spanish or maintaining the plays on words in a series like “Modern Family” is a challenge for translators
By Patricia Pieró
Jan. 18, 2017 08:34 EST
“I still have a cold.” That’s what the above Japanese says. A couple weeks ago my youngest daughter caught a pretty bad cold and the… Read More »まだ風邪をひいています。Mada kaze wo hiite imasu.