| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Poll: Which is the language (L2) that proved to be the most useful in your job as a translator? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "Which is the language (L2) that proved to be the most useful in your job as a translator?".
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The one that is more useful is my native language, Portuguese, the one that I speak, think, read, write, dream, engage with others and work into every day. French has to be in second place: I lived in Belgium for 30 years and I used French on a daily basis. Yet, most of my work nowadays is definitely EN-PT…
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:58
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Whilst I am thought, by many Italians, to be Italian (from somewhere in Tuscany), I am all too aware of the mistakes I tend to make: the lingering uncertainties of perchè or perché, and so on.
But the idea that a language can be "useful" seems very utilitarian to me: is this the white Protestant work ethic raising its head again? Languages are not "useful".
[Edited at 2021-06-13 09:48 GMT]
| | | | P.L.F. Persio 
Netherlands
Local time: 19:58
Member (2010)
English to Italian
+ ...
Tom in London wrote:
Whilst I am thought, by many Italians, to be Italian (from somewhere in Tuscany), I am all too aware of the mistakes I tend to make: the lingering uncertainties of perchè or perché, and so on.
But the idea that a language can be "useful" seems very utilitarian to me: is this the white Protestant work ethic raising its head again? Languages are not "useful".
Tom, the rule goes roughly like this: words such as perché, poiché, giacché, dacché, dopodiché, nientepopodimenoché, conciossiacosacché want the acute accent é, whereas the grave accent è is required in the third-person singular of the present tense of the verb essere, in cioè, caffè, tè, and in all the biblical names such as Noè, Mosè, etc.
Back on topic: Dutch gives me the edge, since there aren't many NL>IT translators out there. But yes, from a non-utilitarian point of view, every language I've ever studied (a total of 9) has given me a lot in terms of personal growth and cultural enrichment, with Russian as my greatest and enduring love.
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| Some guesswork | Jun 13, 2021 |
If my uni life were to start today, I'd certainly go for Chinese (while also sticking with English, of course). I can make sense of quite a few European languages using my electronic friends and translation skills, but in the case of any language that uses a hieroglyphic writing system, you just need to know how it works (e. g. Chinese seems to have simple operating principles, but I wonder why MT tools keep producing such gibberish when translating it into European languages). I'm guessing, t... See more If my uni life were to start today, I'd certainly go for Chinese (while also sticking with English, of course). I can make sense of quite a few European languages using my electronic friends and translation skills, but in the case of any language that uses a hieroglyphic writing system, you just need to know how it works (e. g. Chinese seems to have simple operating principles, but I wonder why MT tools keep producing such gibberish when translating it into European languages). I'm guessing, this knowledge could also be helpful when dealing with texts in Chinglish ▲ Collapse
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Tom in London wrote:
Languages are not "useful".
How can you work as a translator and claim languages are not useful?!
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:58
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Ice Scream wrote: Tom in London wrote:
Languages are not "useful". How can you work as a translator and claim languages are not useful?!
You need to learn about apostrophes.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:58
Member (2008)
Italian to English
P.L.F. Persio wrote:
Tom, the rule goes roughly like this: words such as perché, poiché, giacché, dacché, dopodiché, nientepopodimenoché, conciossiacosacché want the acute accent é, whereas the grave accent è is required in the third-person singular of the present tense of the verb essere, in cioè, caffè, tè, and in all the biblical names such as Noè, Mosè, etc.
Yeah I know but I'm sometimes unsure.
My favourite word in Italian is
Anziché (see? I got the accent right).
Vladimir Nabokov's favourite word in Italian is "pericoloso" (which he saw as a child travelling on Italian trains "sporgersi è pericoloso" - something we will no longer see on today's hermetically sealed trains).
My French friend Hervé's favourite word in Italian is "pozzanghera".
[Edited at 2021-06-13 15:50 GMT]
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Tom in London wrote: Ice Scream wrote: Tom in London wrote:
Languages are not "useful". How can you work as a translator and claim languages are not useful?! You need to learn about apostrophes.
No apostrophes missing or misused in either of our posts…
But if you are referring to your quotation marks, you could “usefully’ explain what you mean.
| | | | Edward Potter
Spain
Local time: 19:58
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Anziché
"pericoloso"
"sporgersi è pericoloso"
"pozzanghera"
Can somebody recommend to me a translator for these terms, please?
| | | | Susanna Martoni
Italy
Local time: 19:58
Member (2009)
Spanish to Italian
+ ...
| Favorite words | Jun 13, 2021 |
Tom in London wrote:
Vladimir Nabokov's favourite word in Italian is "pericoloso" (which he saw as a child travelling on Italian trains "sporgersi è pericoloso" - something we will no longer see on today's hermetically sealed trains).
My French friend Hervé's favourite word in Italian is "pozzanghera".
[Edited at 2021-06-13 15:50 GMT]
The favorite words of some Spanish friends of an ex-friend of mine are Zainetto and Canocchia.
(they are nice)
And Pozzanghera seems a kind of mixture between Zainetto and Canocchia, from a phonetic point of view.
| | | | Rachel Fell
United Kingdom
Local time: 18:58
French to English
+ ...
| "...something we will no longer see on today's hermetically sealed trains" | Jun 13, 2021 |
Actually, I read only yesterday of a young woman who died as a result of leaning out of a train window in England: can't find the reference now, but when I tried to find it quickly just now I saw several instances of this in the UK in recent times. I think that well-known Italian phrase seen on trains could be usefully translated and put on trains in the UK until they all become horribly "hermetically sealed"!
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 14:58
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Not everyone agrees with this, but English is the most useful language for everyone, in every activity, even for those who don't even speak English (funny as it may sound). In addition, English has corrected some huge mistakes of other languages, by not conjugating verbs, not stressing their words with accents and not having different terms for gender, number and intensity. As a result, English is also one of the easiest languages to be learned, by far the best one to communicate, and the most p... See more Not everyone agrees with this, but English is the most useful language for everyone, in every activity, even for those who don't even speak English (funny as it may sound). In addition, English has corrected some huge mistakes of other languages, by not conjugating verbs, not stressing their words with accents and not having different terms for gender, number and intensity. As a result, English is also one of the easiest languages to be learned, by far the best one to communicate, and the most practical one.
In my case (Portuguese), I could almost forecast the time when Portuguese will join Latin it the language heaven, and everyone around here will speak English as their native language. It's a matter of time. I'd guess it doesn't last till the end of this century even.
[Edited at 2021-06-13 21:42 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 20:58
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
Mario Freitas wrote:
In my case (Portuguese), I could almost forecast the time when Portuguese will join Latin it the language heaven, and everyone around here will speak English as their native language. It's a matter of time. I'd guess it doesn't last till the end of this century even.
[Edited at 2021-06-13 21:42 GMT]
As much as I'd like to disagree, this is probably true for most "small" languages, unless they're isolated from the influence of English. Here too it is increasingly common that young people find it easier to express themselves in English than in their mother tongue due to constant exposure to the internet and generally reading less in their native language. I remember being particularly shocked about a year ago when I met a well-known local writer who has written many books in the past 20 years and certainly masters the language (she's a writer, after all!) and yet, when having a conversation in a social setting, every second word she used was in English.
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 20:58
Member
English to Turkish
| What about the French? | Jun 14, 2021 |
Liena Vijupe wrote:
Here too it is increasingly common that young people find it easier to express themselves in English than in their mother tongue due to constant exposure to the internet and generally reading less in their native language. I remember being particularly shocked about a year ago when I met a well-known local writer who has written many books in the past 20 years and certainly masters the language (she's a writer, after all!) and yet, when having a conversation in a social setting, every second word she used was in English.
I've always heard that French people were excessively patriotic about their language, and they wouldn't deign to reply to you when you asked them something in English or would reply to you only in French.
The last time I was in France was over 20 years ago. Some would reply to me in English, some wouldn't on account of not being able to speak English properly. I wonder if that's still the case (not replying in English despite knowing the language very well) despite the linguistic 'imperialism' of English nowadays.
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