English
Máster de Secundaria (CAP) – Pruebas de Idioma
Jul 23
El tiempo pasa y hay cosas que no cambian: en verano hace un calor de mil demonios y nos duchamos una media de tres veces al día (cuatro o cinco si no tienes aire acondicionado), las cervezas y el agua parecen no estar nunca tan frías como nos gustaría, las bodas hacen agujeros en nuestras cuentas bancarias…
Hace dos o tres semanas, un conocido me comentó que había terminado la carrera de Historia y que se había matriculado en el Máster en Educación Secundaria. Un nombre tan largo para definir… ¡el CAP! Sí, ese curso de cuatro meses en que te enseñan a enseñar, prácticas incluidas en un instituto, se ha transformado en un máster universitario con una importante carga lectiva de didáctica, pedagogía y metodología. Vamos, que ahora cuesta un poquito más.
- Y tengo que poseer un diploma B1 de un idioma extranjero para poder inscribirme -me dijo-. No está mal, a ver si los españoles vamos perdiendo esa mala fama de no saber idiomas.
- Vaya, qué novedad… tan apetecible -le seguí. Me costaba entender que los licenciados españoles no estuviéramos obligados a demostrar conocimientos de idiomas.
- Y no solo eso, sino que aquí en la Comunitat Valenciana es necesario demostrar el C1 de valencià ¡y también de castellano! -continuó.
- Vaya, qué tarde llega eso -me salió del alma. Me costaba entender, de nuevo, por qué nos obligan a demostrar que sabemos valenciano pero nunca castellano, con lo pobre que lo llevan muchos ciudadanos.
Así que, amigos y amigas de Route 66 Idiomas, si tenéis pensado matricularos en el máster, debéis saber que habéis de presentar el diploma o, si no, matricularos en las pruebas de acreditación del conocimiento de lenguas extranjeras que realiza la Universitat de València (se celebrarán el 18 de septiembre de 2010). Y no hay que recordar que, si deseáis preparar esas pruebas, podéis hacerlo en nuestra academia, que oferta cursos especiales para la realización de las mismas, así como del examen DELE de español como lengua extranjera.
Translation: man vs. the machine
Apr 6
New technologies, particularly the internet, have been both a blessing and curse for the translator. On the up side, translators can now work with clients all over the world, communicating with them using email and mobile devices to deliver quality translations fast.
On the other hand, and especially in a time of economic recession, potential clients might think, “What do I need a translator for? I can just run my text through an online machine translator, right?”
Not really.
Machine translation software can be useful if you need to get a quick overview of the meaning of something written in another language. However, a translation made by a machine will always appear to be what it is – a translation. Native speakers of the target language (the language the original text, or “source text”, is translated into) will always be able to tell that what they’re reading or listening to was originally in another language, if they can understand it at all.
If you really want to speak to your audience in their language and ensure that they fully understand your message, then using a qualified, experienced and human translator is currently the only solution.
Route 66 Idiomas takes advantage of the best of new technologies in providing its translation services, communicating with the client in the way that is the most convenient for them, whether that be by phone, email or messenger. Route 66 Language School works with a network of professional translators to supply clients with high quality translations of all kinds of texts and projects for many language combinations (including sworn translations or “traducciones juradas”).
Communication and collaboration with the client is also important to ensure that their input contributes towards making the final translation as accurate as possible, faithfully reproducing the original meaning of the source text in the target language.
English: an easy language?
Jan 22
I’ve tried many times to convince non-native English speakers that English isn’t that hard a language to learn. Grammatically it’s far simpler than most other European languages including Spanish. The problem is the spelling and pronunciation. Why is “cough” pronounced “kof”? If we say “Wensday” why is it spelt “Wednesday”?
Recently I was pleased to see that the writers of no less than The Economist seem to agree with my opinion on the relative difficulty of English. Their verdict:
“English is a relatively simple language, absurdly spelled.”
The rest of the article is very interesting and worth reading if for nothing else than to discover that there really is a language called !
Read more here
The weirdness of English
Sep 18
For today, a fairly well-known rhyme about some of the stranger English plurals…
We’ll begin with a box, and the plural is boxes,
But the plural of ox should be oxen, not oxes.
Then one fowl is a goose, but two are called geese,
Yet the plural of mouse should never be meese,
You may find a lone mouse or a whole nest of mice,
But the plural of house is houses, not hice.
If the plural of man is always called men,
Why shouldn’t the plural of pan be called pen?
The cow in the plural may be cows or kine,
But a bow if repeated is never called bine,
And the plural of vow is vows, never vine.
If I speak of a foot and you show me your feet,
And I give you a boot would a pair be called beet?
If one is a tooth, and a whole set are teeth,
Why shouldn’t the plural of booth be called beeth?
If the singular’s this and the plural is these,
Should the plural of kiss ever be nicknamed keese?
Then one may be that and three would be those,
Yet hat in the plural would never be hose,
And the plural of cat is cats, not cose.
We speak of a brother, and also of brethren,
But though we say mother, we never say methren,
Then the masculine pronouns are he, his and him,
But imagine the feminine she, shis and shim,
So the English, I think, you all will agree,
Is the queerest language you ever did see.
* Anon.
