If you are interested in working one on one with the latino/a community of Chapel Hill and Carrboro and are staying in town this summer, Volunteer for CEF Latino!
Help people sustainably transition out of poverty through, the creation of their own small businesses, regular meetings, financial education workshops, savings opportunities, etc.
Please contact Daniela Velando (daniela.velando@gmail.com) or Linda Chamiec-Case (lchamiec@gmail.com)
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Spanish for the Professions (SPAN 265): Register Now for Fall 2011
Spanish for the Professions (SPAN 265) pre-registration form is NOW AVAILABLE: romlcourses.unc.edu/Spanish/professions
Monday, April 4, 2011
Why Translations Are So Tough...
Too often, we assume that a few semesters of Spanish qualify one to translate, especially if it's something simple like signs or labels. It's only after a few more semesters that it sinks in how impossibly hard that can be--and a new respect for the highly specialized discipline of translation is born.
Here's one example of a sign in a park that was translated to Spanish:
jardín de las familias de plantas con flores
Is this a garden full of things from the family of plants that flower in the spring?
Is it a garden with flowering plants in it for families to enjoy together?
Is it like a Rose Bowl parade float in which a mom, dad and some children have been constructed out of flowers?
Some snooping around on the Internet, yields these options for flowering plants: "plantas que dan flores," "plantas que florecen," "plantas que presentan flores."
If it's a garden for families to enjoy, it should probably be a "jardín de familia" or "jardín familiar" (but that might imply that the garden belongs to the family that cultivated it and "jardín para familias" might be better).
At a recent presentation on translation, Mike Doyle (who is certified by the American Translator's Association to both English to Spanish and Spanish to English translations) talked about the importance of being "biliterate" and not just "bilingual"--and these examples show why. We need the lens of literacy to understand and convey meaning. And in the world of translation, being faithful to the spirit of the words is as important and changing the words directly from one language into the other.
So in the end, the English-language sign in the park says "family flower garden," but what is the best way to say that in Spanish? It's certainly not as simple as looking up those three words in a dictionary!
Here's one example of a sign in a park that was translated to Spanish:
jardín de las familias de plantas con flores
Is this a garden full of things from the family of plants that flower in the spring?
Is it a garden with flowering plants in it for families to enjoy together?
Is it like a Rose Bowl parade float in which a mom, dad and some children have been constructed out of flowers?
Some snooping around on the Internet, yields these options for flowering plants: "plantas que dan flores," "plantas que florecen," "plantas que presentan flores."
If it's a garden for families to enjoy, it should probably be a "jardín de familia" or "jardín familiar" (but that might imply that the garden belongs to the family that cultivated it and "jardín para familias" might be better).
At a recent presentation on translation, Mike Doyle (who is certified by the American Translator's Association to both English to Spanish and Spanish to English translations) talked about the importance of being "biliterate" and not just "bilingual"--and these examples show why. We need the lens of literacy to understand and convey meaning. And in the world of translation, being faithful to the spirit of the words is as important and changing the words directly from one language into the other.
So in the end, the English-language sign in the park says "family flower garden," but what is the best way to say that in Spanish? It's certainly not as simple as looking up those three words in a dictionary!
Friday, April 1, 2011
Fall 2011 Registration Opens Soon!
Registration for rising juniors at UNC-CH starts on April 15th. We hope to have the link for Spanish for the Professions (SPAN 265) on April 12th.
For courses in the minor in Spanish for the Professions, we will start registering students for the second and third sequential courses in the minor on April 13th. The new registration system will be able to screen for pre-requisites so that students can enroll themselves in the final course in the minor: La comunidad hispana (SPAN 335).
In all courses, students in the minor will sign up on paper forms in class in order to be enrolled in the minor courses for fall. Once we have the student's signature, that student's seat in the course is secured and we will manually enroll all students from the department office.
We cannot access the registration system before the students' own registration windows open so the course will NOT appear on student schedules when they first go in to register for other classes, but it will appear soon.
For courses in the minor in Spanish for the Professions, we will start registering students for the second and third sequential courses in the minor on April 13th. The new registration system will be able to screen for pre-requisites so that students can enroll themselves in the final course in the minor: La comunidad hispana (SPAN 335).
In all courses, students in the minor will sign up on paper forms in class in order to be enrolled in the minor courses for fall. Once we have the student's signature, that student's seat in the course is secured and we will manually enroll all students from the department office.
We cannot access the registration system before the students' own registration windows open so the course will NOT appear on student schedules when they first go in to register for other classes, but it will appear soon.
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