Working languages: Italian to English
French to English
English to Italian
| Jenny Cowd
Qualified specialist translator
Ferrara, Emilia-Romagna Local time: 15:13 CET (GMT+1)
Native in: English  | |
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More Less | | PRO-level points: 10, Questions answered: 3, Questions asked: 347 | Sample translations submitted: 1 Italian to English: WATCH OUT FOR ITALIAN POLITICIANS SPEAKING ENGLISH!
Detailed field: Linguistics | Source text - Italian
Attenti ai politici quando parlano l'inglese
La politica italiana, in attesa di assomigliare alle democrazie anglosassoni, ha deciso di parlare inglese. Non si spiega altrimenti perché il "tax day" non sia stato chiamato "giorno delle tasse", o perché il raduno dell'Ulivo a Milano - fenomeno inspiegabile, da un punto di vista botanico - sia stato definito "convention", peggio ancora, "convenzione" (che vuol dire tutt'altro: la convenzione è un contratto, non un raduno). Si fosse riunito il Polo, avremmo avuto un "kermesse" (che è un termine di origine religiosa: dall'olandese "kermisse", Messa di chiesa). Si fosse tratto di un raduno di cattolici, sarebbe stato un "meeting".
Agli oratori più convincenti, in queste occasioni, viene tributata una "standing ovation". Pippo Baudo ha consacrato l'espressione a Sanremo, quando ha ordinato al pubblico di rendere omaggio a Bruce Springsteen (il quale aveva appena suonato una canzone tristissima, e non capiva il perché di tanta ilarità). Se i comizianti italiani, invece di una "standing ovation", ricevessero un'ovazione in piedi - che è la stessa cosa - non sarebbero altretanto contenti. Per lo stesso motivo, tra un viaggio-premio e un "viaggio incentive", i piazzisti di aspirapolvere sceglieranno sempre il secondo. | Translation - English
WATCH OUT FOR ITALIAN POLITICIANS SPEAKING ENGLISH!
Italian politics, in an attempt to imitate Anglo-Saxon democracy, has adopted the use of English. Why else is the so called “tax day” not simply called “giorno del tasse”? And why was the left wing coalition meeting of the Ulivo (olive branch) called a “convention”? Or worse still, the Italianised version, “convenzione”, which has a totally different meaning – a contract – nothing to do with a meeting. If the traditional church supporting right wing coalition, the Polo, got together, there would have been a “Mass Meeting” or if the Catholics met up, a “General Assembly”.
The most convincing speakers at these occasions are given a “standing ovation”; this English expression entered the Italian vocabulary when Pippo Baudo, the ubiquitous (but really quite past it) compere of San Remo, the Italian version of the Eurovision Song Contest, asked the audience to show their appreciation for Bruce Springsteen who’d just sung a moving song. He couldn’t really work out what all the laughter was about! But if Italians used their literal equivalent of this expression, “ovazione in piedi”, it just wouldn’t go down as well. The same goes for their adoption of the English word “incentive” for describing a prize holiday. Their own equivalent of prize, “premio”, just doesn’t seem to have the same appeal and, in fact, the door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesman would go for “incentive” any day.
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More Less | | Master's degree - Scuola Traduttori Vicenza | | Years of translation experience: 3. Registered at ProZ.com: Oct 2004. | | N/A | | N/A | | N/A | | Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, SDL TRADOS, Wordfast | | English (DOC) | | Keywords: Technical, scientific, tourism, legal, fast and accurate.
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