#languages things

[alexalbn]

too often, I'm doing a translation and don't know a word and I think, it can't just be a vaguely frenchified/italianized version of the English and it almost always is, bc all languages are ridiculous

[alexalbn]

Language/translation student pet peeve of the day: "untranslatable" words, especially when immediately followed by a translation. Just because there isn't a direct, one-word equivalent, doesn't mean it's untranslatable. If you can give an explanation of what it means, that is a translation! How the fuck do you think translators manage? There are so many concepts that don't exist across cultures, or that do but aren't given a word or phrase. The job of a translator is to manage those issues. Relying solely on literal translation and direct equivalence is how you get bad translated texts.

[alexalbn]

I swear to God I've been told a million times not to use "excité" because that has sexual connotations, but I have literally *just* heard it used in an entirely innocent context I still might steer clear of it though

[alexalbn]

my least favourite thing is when you read something in a foreign language and cannot for the life of you work out what it means

then you look at it again 1 or 2 or 24 hours later and it’s sO FREAKING OBVIOUS

like thanks brain this is so helpful NOW

[alexalbn]

...how bad is it that the first few times i listened to sommeil by stromae, i couldn’t work out exacty what it was about because i was utterly convinced that sommeil meant pillow?

i’m good at french i promise, i’m aiming for a first on my exams next month

[alexalbn]

It's still kinda weird how often the French use 'bon' compared with how often we use 'good' in english

[alexalbn]

and I thought I understood the jij/je, stressed/unstressed pronoun thing, but duolingo is confusing me even more holy crap