Lost in translation

I studied French for a number of years and also know a bit of Italian, so I expected the whole Spanish speaking thing to be a breeze. But it seems that the Mexicans weren’t that impressed with my Franco-Anglo-Italiano version of Spanish, so I decided to buy a couple of phrasebooks. Here’s what I found …

Spoken Spanish for Travellers and Tourists by Charles E. Kany (published in 1943) and Digalo en Ingles (published in 1963)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My personal favourite is Charles E. Kany’s text – it has helped us enormously in many an awkward situation. For example when I was buying a hat it gave me a few helpful questions to ask (in the ‘Buying a hat’ section) including Cuanto habra tardardo el indio en tejer este? (how long do you suppose it took the Indian to weave this one?). As you can imagine I use that expression a lot.

Kany came to the rescue also when I was visiting the ‘Beauty Parlour’, with helpful phrases such as,

Puede usted hacerme un ondulado permanente esta tarde or es preciso fijarme hora? (Can you give me a permanent this afternoon, or is it necessary to make an appointment?)

or

Deme tambien un masaje facial. Quiero conservar la tez de colegiala (Give me a facial also. I want to keep “that schoolgirl complexion”.

Yes. So helpful. And culturally sensitive. You’ll find many similarly appropriate phrases for scenarios including ‘finding a bootblack’, ‘playing a game of cards’, and ‘presenting a letter of recommendation’…
Note: I can’t work out how to do the Spanish accents on my Ingles computer – so none of the phrases above are technically correct (just in case you decide to use them in your Spanish writings!)