Hamlet Translation for West African Tribal Elders One of the questions which many scholars have been trying to answer is whether people from different corners of the world share the same ideas and have the same values despite their cultures and languages. This subject was raised by anthropologists, philosophers, linguists and translators. One of these translators is Laura Bohannan, who translated Shakespearean Hamlet for a group of West African tribal elders. According to Bohannan just before she left Oxford, she protested that human nature is the same over the world and that the general plot and motivation of great tragedies will be clear everywhere. To translate the tragedy for the elders she had to take into account many cultural nuances; for example, the notion of ghosts does not exist in the culture of those tribes as they do not believe in the post-death survival of people. That is why the concept of ghosts became an omen sent by a witch to their culture. After the play was performed, the chiefs discussed it and disagreed on several moments. For instance, they thought that Hamlet had no right to investigate the reasons of his father’s death as it was his uncle’s business. One more thing that they noticed was that Claudius had to marry Gertrude in order to protect his family patrimony, etc. These examples demonstrate that not all cultures share the same assumptions. Hamlet turned out to be very exotic for West African tribes, and only certain moments were clear to them. If you are looking for a reliable translation agency to have your document translated into a language that...
Photo by Robert Demeter, taken from http://www.robertdemeterphotography.com/ Positive Message Translation into Italian, French, Russian, Japanese, Czech, Slovak, and Ukrainian The easiest thing to do is to say that you cannot do anything. ‘I just can’t…’ How many times have you heard or said it? Have you ever tried to prove you wrong and actually DO it! LingoStar team believes that there are no impossible things to do. All that you are required to do is to start working! Certainly, great success doesn’t come to people who say they can’t; it comes to those who work hard to say ‘I could, and I did it!’. Don’t be afraid of anything because fear doesn’t help us become better and stronger. Don’t focus on problems and remember: every problem can be solved. Have hopes, have dreams, have plans, and they will motivate you! We hope you will enjoy this week’s positive message and help LingoStar translate it into more languages. We are very happy to receive your translations and add them to the list. Don’t hesitate to contact us. Let’s have fun together! The Positive Message in English: When you focus on problems, you’ll have more problems. When you focus on possibilities, you’ll have more opportunities. The Positive Message Translation into French: Si te concentres sur les problèmes, tu n’auras que plus de problèmes. Si, au contraire, tu te concentres sur le possibilités, tu auras plus de opportunités. The Positive Message Translation into Italian: Se ti concentri sui problemi, avrai solo più problemi. Se, invece, ti concentri sulle possibilità, avrai più opportunità. The Positive Message Translation into Russian: Как только вы сосредоточитесь...
Successful Translations of Sitcoms Successful translations are extremely important when it comes to written text of scientific genre. This is true: all kinds of written material are problematic. It is important to find the right equivalents for the unique terminology and to make the translation clear and adequate. However, what usually makes even very good translators struggle is humor. If you are a native English speaker, you are lucky enough to watch the world’s most popular sitcoms such as Seinfeld, Friends, or The Big bang Theory in the original language and to be able to enjoy all the creative jokes. But, some people don’t speak English at all, and nevertheless they somehow manage to fall in love with these shows. This is a sign of successful translation and localization. Certainly, it is not a big problem to translate universal jokes that are clear out of the context and will sound almost the same in every language. But, what about linguistic and cultural jokes? For instance, when one of the main characters of Friends, Phoebe, gets married (season 10, episode 12), she doesn’t want to put anything on top of her light wedding dress, although they have an outside wedding, and it is freezing cold. So her friend, Chandler, asks her if she won’t get cold, and Phoebe replies: ‘I don’t care. I’ll be something blue’. There is no need to explain the meaning of this joke for people of the culture where it is a tradition for a woman to have something new, something blue, and something borrowed on when they get married. However, some cultures just do not have this...
The Positive Message Translation into Italian, French, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, and Slovak What does it really mean to be the best? Does it mean to be the strongest or the smartest or the most good-looking person in the world? The problem is that every day the smartest and the strongest man gets a chance to meet somebody who is smarter or stronger. We shouldn’t focus on being better than someone else. Every day we should have a goal: to become better people than we already are. As long as you move towards this goal this life will make sense and will get even more and more interesting. Enjoy being yourselves! Check out LingoStar’s translations of today’s positive message. Don’t hesitate to send us your translations. Let’s share this message with everyone! The Positive Message in English: It’s not about being the best. It’s about being better than you were yesterday. The Positive Message Translation into Italian: L’importante non è essere i migliori, ma essere migliori di quanto si era ieri. The Positive Message Translation into French: L’important ce n’est pas d’être le meilleur, mais d’être meilleur de ce qu’on était hier. The Positive Message Translation into Russian: Дело не в том, чтобы быть лучшим. Дело в том, чтобы стать лучше, чем вы были вчера. The Positive Message Translation into Japanese: 一番でいることではなく、昨日の自分より成長していることが大事なのだ。 The Positive Message Translation into Slovak: Nie je dôležité byť najlepším, ale lepším ako včera. The Positive Message Translation into Ukrainian: Річ ну в тім, щоб бути найкращим. Річ у тім, щоб стати краще, ніж ви були вчора. The Positive Message Translation into Czech: Nejde o to být nejlepší....
Spanish Translation The increase of the Spanish speaking population in North America has resulted in an increased demand for professional Spanish translation and interpretation, especially in the legal and medical fields. Certainly, a translator has to have native or near-native fluency in one of the two languages if he or she wants to work with English – Spanish language pair. Excellent grammar and wide vocabulary are a couple traits that will make someone a good professional translator. However, these skills are just not enough to provide high-quality translation, especially in such important fields as medicine and law. To provide successful legal translation from Spanish to English, it is necessary to be familiar with nuances of all the legal procedures, otherwise you risk getting confused while translating. These include for instance, Spanish and English cognates. Read the following example: Las partes han acordado celebrar el presente contrato con el fin de construir un puente. The parties have agreed to celebrate this contract for the purpose of building a bridge. Do you think this is an incorrect translation? It looks quite adequate. However, in the case of contracts translation, such a translation is unacceptable. As this sentence refers to the formation of the contract, the word ‘celebrate’ is not appropriate, and a translator should use the word ‘enter into’ instead. This verb will denote the actual meaning of the sentence, and the result we will get will be more professional: The parties have agreed to enter into this contract for the purpose of building a bridge. It is also very important to know how to localize the text into English from...
Translation of Proper Names There is a common misconception that proper names are never translated. However, if you ever paid attention to various newspaper articles in foreign language or to some magazines, you may have noticed that, for instance, Queen Elizabeth II is translated as Reina Isabel II and Alliance Française is translated as Instituto Británico in Spanish. Translators actually do a lot of things with proper names. Sometimes they keep proper names non-translated, which leads to different pronunciation in a target language; sometimes they use transcription and transliteration, cultural adaptation, substitution, and so on. As you can see, there are a lot of ways to translate a proper name, and it requires very sensitive decision-making on the part of a translator. Besides, it depends on the type of translation. If one is specializing in the certified translation of official documents, one is unlikely to look for the meaning of the client’s name and just use transliteration to make it sound the same in the target language as it does in the source language. However, in literature we can often find examples of successfully (and unsuccessfully) translated proper names that have the same effect on the target audience as the original name does. For example, the most controversial and one of the most interesting characters of the Harry Potter book series – Severus Snape – doesn’t have the same name in other languages. In Romanian he is Severus Plesneală, in Hungarian – Perselus Piton, in Italian – Severus Piton, in French – Severus Rogue, and in Russian – Северус Снегг (Severus Snegg). For many translators it was more important...
Positive Message Translation Into French, Italian, Japanese, Russian, Ukrainian, Czech, And Slovak Today, with this positive message translation, we want to remind you one more time that this life is beautiful. Just look around! Wherever you are, you can see life around you. And if for some reason you do not like this reality, do not start hating it. Try to think about what you can do to make it a little bit better. As soon as you make someone happier, you become happier too. Sometimes we get confused and believe that to be happy we need material things. These include huge houses, fancy cars, private jets. Moreover, we believe that we need to be successful, get a well-paid job, and have perfect bodies. All these things are just great! However, don’t forget that happiness is unsteady. In other words, one moment it is there and then you are so busy with all your routine problems that you just forget to live. Keep going, keep dreaming, keep achieving your goals! Above all, remember those simple moments that make you happy and smile. For instance, remember those mornings when you wake up and feel that everything will be just fine. That is to say when you are full of energy and ready to conquer this world. Therefore, no matter how hard it is, remember those moments and be sure: if you felt it before, you will feel it again. In short: smile, work, be active, laugh, love, and be HAPPY! Today LingoStar has prepared this amazing positive message for you and translated it into seven languages. Make your contribution, don’t...
Spanish Language And Translation Why is Spanish so cool? Why is it the most popular foreign language to learn in America and Europe? The answer is pretty obvious: this language is everywhere. At least three million people speak it as their native language in 44 countries. Thus, making it the fourth-most widely spoken language in the world behind English (112 countries), French (60), and Arabic (57). So, 500 million people speak Spanish. It is a growing trend that will reach 600 million speakers by 2050! Spanish is an amazing language. If you want to learn a foreign language, you should definitely think about choosing this one. Spanish in North America Knowledge of the Spanish language is especially valuable in the US and Canada today. Especially for young adults preparing to enter the professional world, the ability to speak this language is a great skill. More and more companies are establishing international contacts and attract investments from other countries. A person speaking the language of the target audience always has better chances to get the desired position. The US and Canada have extensive cooperation with Spain and the countries of Central and South America. That is why the language factor will be one of a set of factors that will influence an employer’s decision to offer you a job. It is not surprising at all: Spanish is not only the second language used for international communication but also an official language of 22 countries! Are you still hesitating about learning it? Don’t. This will be love from the first…sound. Here at LingoStar, we offer you professional Spanish language tutoring: private...
Chinese New Year As many of you know, on Thursday, February 19th Vancouver, as well as many other cities around the globe, celebrated Chinese New Year. For millions of people in Asia it is the biggest day of the year. In China, it is also known as the Spring Festival, the literal translation of the modern Chinese name. In this period we can see the world’s largest human migration as 2.8 billion people travel across China. Many students, migrant workers and employees living far from home make the journey back to their hometowns to celebrate this day with their families and friends. What do the Chinese do to be fully prepared for the New Year? First of all, several days before the New Year the Chinese do a complete cleaning of the house to get rid of all the old things and welcome the new ones. Then they decorate their house to welcome the New Year, mostly with red decorations. New Year’s dinner and fireworks are also two essential elements of a successful celebration. Moreover, children will receive red envelopes filled with money to bring happiness and good fortune. Some children sleep on their envelopes for seven days to increase their luck. It is important that only unmarried people can receive the red envelopes with money, and only married people can give them. Chinese New Year in Vancouver Cities like Vancouver are happy to celebrate the Chinese New Year. For instance, on February 22, 2015, events culminated in a full day of celebration in the heart of Chinatown. The annual Chinese New Year parade opens this fantastic day full of...
Spanish Translation Spanish is one of the most requested languages for translation services in North America. This is no surprise. With a huge Spanish population living in the US and Canada, it is obvious why this is so important in these countries. As we have mentioned before, it is a huge mistake to think of Spanish as a singular, monolithic entity. Spanish has a lot of varieties, and most of them differ from each other to some extent. Therefore, Spanish of the US is no exception. Have you ever heard the term ‘founder effect’? The founder effect can trace linguistic features of modern dialects to dialect differences at the time of settlement. Linguists managed to identify a number of unique Spanish dialects in the territory of the US. These dialects have core features traceable to 16th – 17th century Spain. So, originally these dialects already had differences, and in the process of language evolution, these features became even more prominent. For instance, if you provide a translation into Mexican Spanish, you need to know that this dialect prefers ‘qué tanto’ to ‘cuánto’ for ‘how much’ and uses ‘qué tan + ADJECTIVE’ in expressing degree, as in ‘qué tan grande es?’ (how big is it?). Interpreters have to be ready for the strong sibilant pronunciation of the sound /s/ in the beginning of a word or syllable. This is the most prominent feature of Mexican Spanish, which it shares with northern Spain, central Colombia, and Andean countries. At LingoStar, we cooperate with professional translators who provide high-quality Spanish translation and interpretation services. Our translators are native speakers of various Spanish...
