All Spaniards, we discovered, knew two English expressions. One was "O.K., baby"

[tabacoychanel]

... the other was a word used by the Barcelona whores in their dealings with English sailors, and I am afraid the compositors would not print it.   ~ George Orwell

Day 06 - A book that makes you sad
Isabel Allende, The House of Spirits. I'm very hit-or-miss when it comes to sprawling multigenerational family sagas with political overtones, but this

Comments

[maruutsu]

My teacher read the Spanish translation of the book, and translators are known for fixing grammar mistakes and unpleasant syntax. So I guess it's not surprising!

That's the YA fantasy I meant, yes! And LMAO. She *is* known for stereotyping indigeneous people, but lots of Latin Americans who aren't actually indigeneous but claim being descended from them - which is to say, everyone except racist Argentinians - do that. It's especially obvious in my own country, where the few indigeneous people we had were brutally murdered by our lovely white government. This was way back in the 19th century, but people today are still compensating for that by naming everything after them and portraying them as stereotypical Magical Indian types. But I'm babbling.

Isabel Allende did work as a translator of romance novels back in the day, despite not having formal training in translation (which nowadays, considering the fact that I have to STUDY in order to become a translator, I find distateful). But apparently she changed the endings so the female leads became independent and whatnot, so she got fired. I kind of want to read something she translated back then.

I've never thought of her writing as being Anglicized, but I'm probably the LAST person who'd notice that. My Spanish prose reads like translated English, I'm afraid. :/

And don't worry about being slow in reading Spanish. It's difficult to get the hang of reading in a different language at first. I started reading English novels when I was thirteen or fourteen, and I remember the despair I felt at first. But trust me, all it takes is more practice, and it's absolutely worth it. Most of what I know I learned by reading (and by watching TV and movies, of course).