Hi Carel, What you are forgetting that every language has its cultural idiosyncrasies and idioms. You can not take a pre-school text book and simply translate it. Furthermore, there are also cultural differences in teaching. Take your example: In German: Schau Spot. Schau Spot läuft. No German would say that to a child. Also, schau is actually look and not see. Another translation with see would be Sehe Spot. Sehe Spot laufen. This is not good German and under normal circumstances a German would never speak that way. More appropriate would be: Das ist Spot. Spot läuft. In english we have "That is Spot. Spot is running" Of course I could try "Seht Spot. Seht wie Spot läuft" In English:See Spot. See how Spot runs" As you can see completely different grammatical forms. It is not that simple. Furthermore, a German normallydoes call their dogs Spot. Or translate Dick and Jane. Well I could start with "Every dick and Jane" being Hinz und Kunze, but Hinz und Kunze are last names. It does not work that way. Sorry. regards Keith. Am 24.02.2010 um 18:51 schrieb cmiske@ashzfall.com:
Keith and Andrew: Thank you so much for your replies.
I am in the process of learning Spanish (the 'textbook' version they tend to teach in the US school system). In my readings I have already encountered many moments of "I know what it is saying, but what does it mean?" I lack the cultural background and ability to 'play' with words that is necessary for high-level translation.
What I was actually thinking of was more along the lines of the translation of early readers (such as the Dick and Jane series) into a multitude of languages. As books of this nature are intended to have a rather limited vocabulary scope and to facilitate the learning of an individual's 'native' language, I thought these books might also be helpful if translated into multiple languages. When reading these books it would also be possible for the language learners to refer to the edition in their native language for guidance. I'm not sure that this sort of translation process would actually create something that PG would even want.
Is there much interest beyond my own to see "See Spot. See Spot run...." translated into a dozen or more languages? I assumed that if there were much interest, there would already be such a project out there on the internet.
There are, of course, books of this nature on the market, but they are rather limited in availability and somewhat pricey. A free archive would be nice.
I agree that the majority of works of literature should be left to the experts and native speakers of both languages. Andrew's project was a fine example of a collaborative effort. I hope more people get together in small groups (or individually) to translate more works. Their efforts are appreciated.