tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post4720131902171983520..comments2023-10-10T17:07:36.114+02:00Comments on cross-cultural moments: Words with no pauseElizabeth Abbothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09763064258020825441noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post-28475445225076455082007-07-18T12:45:00.000+02:002007-07-18T12:45:00.000+02:00Shelley,Dai!! there is lots of interesting stuff i...Shelley,<BR/>Dai!! there is lots of interesting stuff in the newspapers and not all the articles are incomprehensible (just the ones on politics). The TV news is worse, so you have to dig in somewhere to know what's going on.Elizabeth Abbothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09763064258020825441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post-82171120795593019222007-07-13T21:46:00.000+02:002007-07-13T21:46:00.000+02:00This is why I gave up reading Italian newspapers l...This is why I gave up reading Italian newspapers long ago. I kept forgetting the first part of the sentence.Shelley - At Home in Romehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07852984952753737225noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post-337451422489048122007-07-13T16:14:00.000+02:002007-07-13T16:14:00.000+02:00Kataroma, I can feel for you. I occasionally help ...Kataroma, I can feel for you. I occasionally help out my brother-in-law by translating legal correspondence and it is indeed a task! Medical Italian is not much better. I also help an Italian cardiologist prepare her presentations for international conferences and it is hard to figure out where the blood is coming from and where it has to go. I think it is the wide use of the impersonal form that makes it so difficult to translate. We need to know WHO DOES IT and, TO WHOM which isn't clear with the impersonal, especially when the object is "intended". Happy translating!!<BR/><BR/>Hey dreamer, Italians are taught to write like this, or at least they are not forced to follow paragraph structure as we were....opening sentence, body, closing sentence for each paragraph. Instead they are better at understanding things in their context and not because they are spelled out -- they have always had to.<BR/><BR/>Alex (Italian teacher) talks about the importance of musicality, "musicalità dà efficacia", so what seems like flowing jibberish is actually effective (to them) because of its musicality and flow.....will we ever get it?Elizabeth Abbothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09763064258020825441noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post-57954911868661537882007-07-13T11:28:00.000+02:002007-07-13T11:28:00.000+02:00And legal Italian is even worse! I translate a lo...And legal Italian is even worse! I translate a lot of Italian legal documents as part of my job and it drives me nuts trying to make this kind of verbose Italian into passable English.<BR/><BR/>Legal English is pretty bad too but not nearly as bad as legal Italian. I think it's one of those Wizard of Oz "man behind the curtain" things. Makes the lawyer look like he knows his stuff! :)Kataromahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14978496810226430712noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3154569229380760325.post-29371275848814930712007-07-13T11:08:00.000+02:002007-07-13T11:08:00.000+02:00Oh this is so true. I *hate* the lack of paragraph...Oh this is so true. I *hate* the lack of paragraphs! This is what makes reading some Italian so hard for me--you forget the beginning of the sentence by the time you get to the end! <BR/><BR/>A translator's nightmare to be sure--especially when, like in your example, there are phrases like "to go beyond mere enhancement," and I'm thinking, like you, "of what?" Can I throw in something (life? your holiday? mah) or do I just have to rephrase the whole thing? I can't believe Italians continue to write like this--and are *taught* to do so. Scary.<BR/><BR/>How are your lessons going, btw? Are you verbose yet?Michelle | Bleeding Espressohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13578703393987896737noreply@blogger.com