Can language affect how much you spend?

Posted On August 31, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages/ No Comments

We all know environment plays a part in how we behave, but how does our mother tongue affect our attitude towards money? New research claims the language we speak affects our saving habits. This article gives a summary of the differences between Chinese and English in a financial context.

Futureless language

Keith Chen, a professor at Yale’s School of Management, made the connection between language and behavioral finance at TEDGlobal 2012. The economist argued if you speak about the present and future in the same way, it encourages you to be equally interested in your finances now and then.

In Chinese, you can say: “yesterday it rain, today it rain, tomorrow it rain.” However, in English you would divide up time by saying: “it rained yesterday, it is raining now, it will rain tomorrow.” Chen’s research showed that futureless language speakers like the Chinese, who don’t distinguish between present and future actions, were the best savers in the world.

Becoming better savers

Chen tried to eliminate all other factors to prove his point about the psychological effect of language on financial behavior. He compared almost identical family units in countries including Switzerland where the main difference was the language spoken.

He found that those who spoke futureless languages were 30 per cent more likely to have saved money that year, with 25 per cent more in retirement savings. It would seem, then, that courses in futureless languages such as Chinese could help learners save money as the grammar encourages an empathy with one’s future self.

Learning a language to change your outlook

This research shows that certain languages have an affinity with particular psychological approaches to life. When you’re a student of new languages you will find they all have their own nuances and specialist vocabularies, whether you’re learning Chinese or English.

Schools such as Malvern House offer courses that focus on these different aspects of languages. For example, you can focus on business English or exam English, depending on the direction you want your life to take. To find out more about such specialist courses, visit this page.

Five Networking Tips for Translators

Posted On August 28, 2012By TranspanishIn Tips for Translators/ 1 Comment

Translation work can be pretty lonesome sometimes. High speed internet connection at home, a professional email for work purposes and a reliable computer is all that the qualified translator needs on a daily basis. If he or she isn’t careful, it can be very easy to become a kind of recluse and feel fairly isolated from the rest of the working world in general.

This is why it is important for translators to network. It is inspiring and productive to stay in contact with new trends and to make an effort to be part of the translation community close to where you live. The problem is that not all translators really know where to start or how to network effectively.

The following tips cover some of the most useful networking strategies for translators worldwide. A daily dose of networking communication is all that it takes to turn a worn-out, stale translator into a modern, energetic master of language once more. If you love translation, but you feel that you need guidance and support every now and then, the ideas below are perfectly designed to meet your needs.

Contribute to Portals
Translation portals can be some of the best ways for translators to find support from other translators, find work and further develop their translating skills as the demands of their jobs expand.

Two of the most well-known translation portals are www.proz.com and www.translatorsafe.com. Both portals are particularly popular thanks to the extensive support and guidance translators can find via the forum discussions and translator help pages. Proz operates on a points system whereby translators who dedicate regular time to helping other industry experts and contributing to posts that have been published in the forum space earn more points. The more points a translator earns, the better their profile looks in Proz.

Positive profiles are clearly the best way forward for securing more work and better paid work too, which is why it is a really good idea to join these portals and make a constant effort to stay active on these sites as well.

Join Associations
It is also a very wise idea to join at least one translator association, particularly if you are working as a freelance translator as is the general custom of most translators across the globe.

There might be times when you need legal support or sound advice before signing a contract or launching into a long term project with any given company or independent client. As a member of a translator association, you will always have somewhere to turn should you require support of this kind.

Some of the most popular translator associations include:

1. The American Translators Association
2. The Institute of Translation and Interpreting
3. The Association of Translation Companies

Get Social
A quick search on social networking sites like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and Termwiki will immediately highlight a long list of translators, translating companies, translating experts or translating sites that you can join and follow.

Once friends with other translating professionals, you will be able to share posts to your work and to job opportunities that come your way. The more you share, the more people will share with you in return and promote the translation work that you do. Essentially, getting social on social networking sites is one of the best and cheapest ways to spread information about your translation skills and learn about translation opportunities in record time.

Blog It
As an expert in translation, recognize that you have an important skill to share with others. Translators are in high demand across all industries, particularly in recent years as international business is now open to small businesses too via cheap, international online advertising with the likes of Google AdWords, for example.

If you start blogging about translation and translation-related topics on a weekly basis (regular posts are essential), then people interested in translation or people looking for translators will actually end up contacting you directly or following your blog and all your interesting updates.

Find your Specialization and Cut out the Middleman
This final tip is directly aimed at those translators who are looking for work and it highlights the benefits of cutting out the middleman. Ignore translator forums, translator groups and translator associations or websites and hit your potential client at the very source.

Make a decision and decide what kind of translation work you want to specialize in, if you haven’t done so already. There’s a huge difference between translators who specialize in medical translation and those who specialize in legal translation. Translating tourist material is nothing like translating novels and other kinds of creative writing.

When you know what kind of translation you want to dedicate most of your time to, head straight to the source with CV and past work examples at the ready and find out who, in your chosen industry, is in need of a translator.

For example, if your idea of a dream job is translating for hostel and tourism websites, send your CV to as many different hostels as possible and perhaps even visit some of them in person if you can.

A Linguistic Feature of Rioplatense Spanish: Hablar en capicúa

Posted On August 22, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages, Lunfardo, Spanish Language/ No Comments

Rioplatense or River Plate Spanish, the dialect of Spanish spoken in and around Buenos Aires, Argentina, is characterized by a number of features, most notably the use of voseo and Lunfardo slang; however, a lesser-known phenomenon called “hablar en capicúa” or “hablar en sánguche” also exists within the dialect.

Hablar en capicúa (known in English as epanalepsis) consists of taking a word or pair of words appearing at the beginning of a sentence and repeating it at the end. In Rioplatense Spanish, there is typically a slight pause and a downward inflection when the repeated words are spoken.

The word “capicúa” means palindrome (a word, sentence, etc. that reads the same forwards and backwards). Thus, hablar in capicúa is to speak in palindromes, as the repetition of the same word at the beginning and end of the sentence produces a palindrome of sorts. Others refer to this rhetorical term as “sandwich speak” (hablar en sánguche) presumably because part of the phrase is sandwiched between the two repeated bits.

Examples:

Me tomé todo el vino, me tomé. // I drank all the wine, I drank [it].

Sos un buen tipo, sos. // You’re a good guy, you are.

Tengo que morfar, tengo. // I have to eat, I have to.

Unlike Lunfardo and voseo, which have been adopted by Rioplatense speakers at all socioeconomic levels, hablar en capicúa is primarily employed by less-educated speakers.

Esperanto, The Universal Language, Celebrates its 125th Birthday

Posted On August 20, 2012By TranspanishIn Languages/ No Comments

What is Esperanto?
Despite the international power of the English speaking world, Esperanto (celebrating its 125th birthday this year) is considered to be the universal language of our time by at least two million people who use the language every day just like any other.

Created in Warsaw on the 26th July 1887 by the young, 27 year-old, Polish ophthalmologist, Ludwig Zamenhof, Esperanto attempts to break down language barriers that exist between different countries and different cultures. It was Zamenhof’s idea to eradicate the problems that we encounter when we are unable to communicate in a common language. It was Zamenhof’s hope to create a universal understanding through Esperanto (esperanza being the Latin based word for hope).

Esperanto’s Journey Through History
In Nazi Germany, Esperanto was associated with rebel movements and many people who spoke the language were persecuted because it was believed that Esperanto speakers formed part of the Jewish conspiracy to enslave members of the Arian race, for example. During the formative years of the 20th Century in Spain, the working classes saw the language as the perfect vehicle towards the development of a society built on equal opportunities.

In the 1980s, thanks to the huge development of the Internet, Esperanto experienced an increase in popularity once more (it experienced its very own kind of renaissance, as it were) as more and more people began to learn the language via Internet courses and online programs. In 1991, Pope John Paul II was the first Pope ever to use Esperanto in a public address and in 2012 (having celebrated its 125th birthday) it is one of the most widely-distributed languages on the planet.

In fact, out of the 6000 most popular languages spoken and understood worldwide, Wikipedia ranks Esperanto as the 27th most utilized language when it comes to online articles and social networking platforms, including Facebook.

Some Fascinating Facts about Esperanto
Owing to the innovative purpose behind its creation (the idea of generating a universal language that will forever prevent communication barriers in the future), fascinating facts about Esperanto abound. Some of the most interesting are as follows:

World renowned writer, Leo Tolstoy, was an Esperanto speaker and avid fan of the language.
It is believed that there are roughly two million Esperanto speakers living in the world today.
In Mexico alone, The Mexican Esperanto Federation can verify that roughly 800 people take online language courses in Esperanto every year.
Google, Skype, Firefox and Facebook are all available in Esperanto.
Many foreign language students across the world are choosing to study Esperanto as one of their language choices owing to the fact that, with few grammar irregularities to take into account, it’s fairly easy and quick to learn.
The Esperanto alphabet is made up of 28 letters and each letter has its own particular sound.
Approximately 70% of Esperanto’s language roots are Latin-based.
Most of the words are created by mixing and matching prefixes and suffixes.
There are only 16 grammar rules to learn in Esperanto.
Native Esperanto speakers exist. Esperanto is, for a few dozens of people, their first or native language.
It is now possible to buy books and newspapers (both originals and translations) or to listen to radio and television programs, in Esperanto.
The language does not incorporate the use of synonyms.

What Lies Ahead in the Future for Esperanto?
The future of Esperanto most certainly lies in the possibility that it provides for coming into contact with other cultures, making friends worldwide and for travel. The “Pasporta Servo,” which is a kind of guide that lists other Esperanto speakers living all over the world, offers the interested Esperanto speaker a list of places where they can stay when travelling the world (usually the house of a fellow Esperanto speaker, for example).

Without a doubt, the initial hope that Zamenhof had when he created the language in 1887 is on its way to be realized on a large scale. Esperanto is breaking down the language and cultural barriers that we experience on a day to day basis and it is its simplicity that has made it so attractive to so many people.

Esperanto is the world’s best example of a universal language because, unlike English, it isn’t attached to any particular culture and it isn’t the property of any one country. Perhaps by 2050, Esperanto will have taken over the throne that the English language world has held onto for such a long time.

Happy birthday Esperanto!

Pasporta Servo website

“Spanglish” Finds Its Way into the Spanish-Speaking World’s Most Prestigious Dictionary

Posted On August 16, 2012By TranspanishIn Spanglish, Spanish Language/ No Comments

The Real Academia Española (RAE), the Spanish-speaking world’s language authority, is finally rolling out the welcome mat for the word “Spanglish” (or espanglish, as the term is written in Spanish). The RAE plans to incorporate the word into the 2014 edition of its master reference work known as the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española (DRAE).

The RAE’s decision to finally include the word “espanglish” came about as a result of years of lobbying by the Academia Norteamericana de la Lengua Española (ANLE), an organization that defines Spanish language standards in North America. In the past, the DRAE neglected to designate terms as specific to U.S. Spanish speakers, but with the growing number of Latinos in the United States, the RAE realized that it could no longer afford to ignore this segment of the population. As such, the next edition of the DRAE will specifically indicate if a term was coined by Spanish speakers in the United States.

While the linguists at ANLE are celebrating the inclusion of “espanglish” in the DRAE, not everyone is pleased about the new addition. Language purists view the existence of Spanglish as threatening. A number of noted Spanish-language writers and academics have made disparaging remarks about the rise of Spanglish, and one linguist in particular warns that the Spanish language as a whole is in danger of devolving into something of a dialect without clearly defined standards.

The highly esteemed academic Antonio Garrido Moraga offered this opinion about Spanglish, “I advocate for Hispanics to learn English and preserve Spanish. Now, if they don’t learn English and they only express themselves in that jumble of Spanish and English, they’re condemned to the ghetto.”

Like it or not, the acceptance of the concept of Spanglish by the RAE opens doors for the inclusion of other Spanish words “made in the USA.” The word “forma” instead of “formulario” (form), “aplicar por” instead of “postularse” (apply for), and “aseguranza” instead of “seguro” (insurance) are just some of the words that are heard daily on the streets of New York, L.A. and other major American cities with a significant Hispanic presence. If Spanglish advocates get their way, these words will soon be gracing the pages of the DRAE as well.

Example of Spanglish:

The meaning of ‘fiaca’

Posted On August 9, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, Lunfardo, Spanish Language/ 2 No Comments

Argentine Spanish is strewn with words and colorful phrases from Lunfardo, a rich vocabulary born on the streets of Buenos Aires in the second half of the 19th century. Now considered a fixture of the Spanish language in Argentina (especially in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay, linguists cite the use of Lunfardo as a defining characteristic of the Rioplatense dialect. Add a dash of Argentine flavor to your Spanish vocabulary with the Transpanish blog’s ongoing feature highlighting some of the most frequently used terms in Lunfardo.

In Lunfardo, the word “fiaca” is a noun that means “the feeling or state of being bored, idle, slothful or unmotivated.” When used to refer to a person, possible English translations of the word “fiaca” include lazybones, lazyhead, bum, layabout, and idler.

The Lunfardo word “fiaca” is said to have originated from the Genoese dialect of Italian. In that dialect, the word makes reference to “a lack of energy/tiredness attributed to missing a meal.”

Related words in Lunfardo:
verb hacer fiaca: laze about, bum around

Usage examples: ¡Qué fiaca que tengo! // Man, I feel like a slug today!

Los domingos me gusta hacer fiaca. // I like to laze about on Sundays.

The song “Doña Fiaca,” written by Eladia Blázquez, prominently features the word “fiaca” in the title and lyrics.

La fiaca no es pereza, no es descanso,

Es una sutileza de algo más.

Una melange de todo a nuestro modo

Un rasgo del folklore nacional.

La fiaca, es una filosofía

De la antigana de no hacer, del no querer,

La diosa del desgano y de la cama

Y la madam de la comodité.

Y convengamos que es un poco pastenaca

Aquel que nunca le da la fiaca,

Hasta el mismísimo Ministro de Trabajo

Su golpe bajo, debe amagar.

La gente fina la bautiza en su lirismo

Como ausentismo, pero es lo mismo,

Y doña fiaca es una mina que domina

En casa, en la oficina y en toda la nación.

Si alguno ha pensado en vacunarse,

Lo siento, pierde el tiempo sin razón.

La fiaca, sin remedio, va a atacarle

Porque es igual al virus de Hong Kong.

No teman, el mayor de los incordios

Serán las ganas que le den de apoliyar.

Si en alguien, el bostezo se hace gordo,

Llamen al “tordo”, que lo va a curar.

English Language Remained More Stable in the 20th Century

Posted On August 1, 2012By TranspanishIn Did you know?, English Language, Languages, Tips for Translators/ No Comments

A scientific and linguistic analysis of data culled from digitized books shows that the English language remained relatively stable in the 20^th century, with popular words and phrases falling out of favor at a slower pace as compared with past centuries.

The increased availability of digital information through initiatives such as Google Books makes quantitative academic research more feasible than ever. This access to copious amounts of digitized data allowed Slovenian researcher Matjaz Perc from the University of Maribor to analyze English-language books spanning five centuries. He discovered that during that time period, the English language has grown by about one-third. Additionally, he found that while the word “the” holds the distinction of most-frequently-used word between the years 1520 and 2008, the most common five-word phrases have changed quite dramatically since the end of the 16^th century. In 1575, the top three phrases were “I have the honour to,” “Long Service and Good Conduct,” and “Lord’s Commissioners of the Admiralty.” By 2008, those top three phrases were supplanted by the following: “at the end of the,” “on the part of the,” and “in the middle of the.”

Perc found that popular words and phrases—referred to as “n-grams” in the study—went in and out of style much quicker in the 1500s, often being given the linguistic boot after just a few years. It wasn’t until the end of the 1700s that the English language’s list of top 100 phrases began to stabilize. Today common turns of phrase can live on for decades.

From a mathematical point of view, a snowball effect of sorts seems to be at work with these commonly used words and phrases. Once a particular phrase becomes popular, its popularity continues to grow and grow, making it less likely to be phased out of the language in the near future. And so, for better or worse, it looks like those well-worn clichés are here to stay.

Month: August 2012