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Why the English portion is harder than the Spanish in State Exams
Thread poster: Rod Novillo
Rod Novillo United States Local time: 01:12 English to Spanish + ...
Dec 6, 2009
Theory on why it is so much easier to pass the Spanish portion of written exam
Posted on December 5th, 2009
Well…. after much thought…. I came up with a theory as to the roots of such great discrepancy between Spanish and English scores in the written Interpreter exam. Getting to the point, in a nut-shell, the unbalance has to do primarily with three things:
1. the workings behind romance languages–> Spanish
Theory on why it is so much easier to pass the Spanish portion of written exam
Posted on December 5th, 2009
Well…. after much thought…. I came up with a theory as to the roots of such great discrepancy between Spanish and English scores in the written Interpreter exam. Getting to the point, in a nut-shell, the unbalance has to do primarily with three things:
1. the workings behind romance languages–> Spanish
2. the workings of Germanic Languages —> English
3. the evolved mechanisms behind the standardized format of ‘testing’ the English language
In depth—>
1) Romance languages are more of a ‘what you see is what you get’ type of format. It is either right, or completely off, hence, it is somewhat easier to detect the ‘wrong’ usage from the ‘correct’ usage. I believe there is reason as to why Spanish falls into the ‘Romance’ category. Romance languages are easier to use in connoting emotions, feelings, and those things which elude reason. As such, English then becomes the more ‘elusive’ of the languages, and consequently easier to ‘trick’.
2) Germanic languages derive their strengths from their ‘technology’ sort to speak. They evolved primarily as a means of ‘verbal technology’. With the industrial revolutions and advents of the 1920-1945, Germanic languages’ initiatives to mold themselves to the advancements of humanity created staple characteristics indicative of their overall usage and purpose. If one looks also at the evolution of Western Philosophy, one can see that the German language and its cousin English evolved similarly in the effect that their aims have been in a sense to be able to have many very different ways of saying the same thing, in a very technical and logical format—-> here, is where the standardized testing edge comes in.
3) Testing of these languages, therefore becomes quite easy in that its innate ‘elusiveness’ becomes an advantage to the examiner.
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Henry Hinds United States Local time: 02:12 English to Spanish + ...
In memoriam
Not Valid
Dec 7, 2009
1.- Which State exams are you talking about? Which have you taken? 2.- You appear to assume that it is so much easier to pass the Spanish portion of written exam and accept it as fact. Yet you provide no basis for it. 3.- I do not see any basis for your comparison of Romance and Germanic languages. It does not seem to have any relationship with reality. Spanish can be very precise or very elusive, and it has many ways of saying the same things. The same is the case with English. ... See more
1.- Which State exams are you talking about? Which have you taken? 2.- You appear to assume that it is so much easier to pass the Spanish portion of written exam and accept it as fact. Yet you provide no basis for it. 3.- I do not see any basis for your comparison of Romance and Germanic languages. It does not seem to have any relationship with reality. Spanish can be very precise or very elusive, and it has many ways of saying the same things. The same is the case with English. 4.- My own theory would be that in your own experience you have found it easier to pass the Spanish portion of exams because it is your native language and you know it better than English. You should probably restrict your comments to that, and not try to generalize, realizing that other people's experiences could be quite the opposite. ▲ Collapse
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Rod Novillo United States Local time: 01:12 English to Spanish + ...
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Dec 7, 2009
Actually, English is my stronger language, and as the title states, it is a theory, not a fact or law which I propose.
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