"espíritu de almacenero"

English translation: average Joe

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

Spanish term or phrase:	\"espíritu de almacenero\"
English translation:	average Joe
Entered by:	Wendy Gosselin

01:14 Apr 2, 2015

Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings

Spanish term or phrase: "espíritu de almacenero"

Lo que te voy a decir no se puede agarrar con espíritu de almacenero. A veces lo malo es bueno, y a veces, al revés, lo bueno es malo. Es complicado el ser humano.

ENTIENDO QUE TENER "ESPÍRITU DE ALMACENERO" ES SER ALGUIEN CON ENTENDIMIENTOS MUY BÁSICOS (NO MUY DESARROLADO INTELECTUALMENTE). ALGUNA SUGERENCIA AL INGLÉS?

Wendy Gosselin KudoZ activity Questions: 2017 (5 open) (214 closed without grading) Answers: 2 Argentina
Local time: 17:46

small-minded attitude

Explanation:
basically they don't think too much or too deeply as they are so involved in their own little world.
I think most people nowadays wouldn't understand "shopkeeper's attitude" as it's gone out of fashion as an expression. Marx included shopkeepers as part of the petite bourgeoisie along with government officials, lawyers, doctors, independent farmers, and teachers

discussion here on translating it

http://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=1129477
En primer lugar, “shopkeeper” es “tendero” o “dueño de una tienda” no un dependiente. E importa la distinción, porque la idea es que él o ella sólo piensa en su pequeño negocio y no tiene interés en los asuntos del mundo más amplio. Por ejemplo, Carlos Marx dijo que el tendero y el intelectual burgués tienen algo en común: el primero no ve más allá de su tienda y sus pequeñas ganancias mientras el intelectual burgués no ve más allá del sistema de capitalismo.

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Note added at 8 hrs (2015-04-02 09:34:00 GMT)
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you could also say "self-interested mindset" i.e don't look beyond their own concerns

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Note added at 12 hrs (2015-04-02 13:15:10 GMT)
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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/lowbrow

Simple people http://www.thefreedictionary.com/simple
Artless/guiless people http://www.thefreedictionary.com/artless

OK in that case I think we'd just say they are simple/guiless/artless/uncultured/uncultivated people. Or maybe

"Lowbrows" though that is a bit derogatory
I don't think "shopkeeper" mindset will work at all in that case in English

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Note added at 12 hrs (2015-04-02 13:16:51 GMT)
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"non-intellectual" in other words

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Note added at 12 hrs (2015-04-02 13:20:34 GMT)
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or just "a common/plebeian man/people" or mundane/ordinary/everyday/humdrum/banal mindset...

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Note added at 12 hrs (2015-04-02 13:27:18 GMT)
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I actually think ordinary/undistinguished or average Joe Soap (run-of-the-mill) might work best here.

or average Joe Soap/Joe Bloggs/Mr Average
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-joe2.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Average_Joe

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Note added at 9 days (2015-04-11 13:56:06 GMT) Post-grading
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Glad to have helped. It took me a while to get there but I do think it's the best match in the end!

Selected response from:

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 21:46

Grading comment

Oh my God! Average Joe is absolutely perfect--you hit it on the head. Thanks!
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +3

shopkeeper attitude

David Hollywood

shopkeeper's mindset

Muriel Vasconcellos

(amongst others) petit bourgeois mentality

Piet DM

jobsworth mentality

AllegroTrans

small-minded attitude

Yvonne Gallagher

small horizons person

AllegroTrans

Discussion entries: 2

Answers

7 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +3

shopkeeper attitude

Explanation:
I would say

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Note added at 9 mins (2015-04-02 01:23:33 GMT)
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this is a despective term to mean very basic thought processes

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Note added at 14 mins (2015-04-02 01:28:13 GMT)
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or: shouldn't be taken lightly

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Note added at 14 mins (2015-04-02 01:28:39 GMT)
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a more elegant way to put it

David Hollywood
Local time: 17:46
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 72

Notes to answerer

Asker: David, can you give me some links to examples where the phrase is used in the way you describe? From what I see online, it's a flat phrase without the idea the phrase has in Spanish i.e. The aura she has felt in this tunnel changed the shopkeeper's attitude. Tourists, by observing the shopkeeper's attitude, and then by also adopting this... (T) recognizes the shopkeeper's attitude as one of trust. (NONE OF THESE HAS THE IDEA THE PHRASE HAS IN SPANISH)

2 hrs confidence:

espíritu de almacenero shopkeeper's mindset

Explanation:
I think it's more than an attitude. It's about the way they use their mind to think things through.

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Note added at 2 hrs (2015-04-02 03:44:34 GMT)
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I actually found some examples. See the second one especially.

marcusstarke.com/.../artisan-marketing-turning-small-customer-experien...
Feb 20, 2013 - ... the footprint of our marketing, we can adopt an “artisan's mindset” to ... our customers, we need to develop the “artisan shopkeeper's mindset.

Nation of Shopkeepers | Jobenomics
jobenomicsblog.com/nation-of-shopkeepers/
Mar 19, 2012 - The epithet “Nation of Shopkeepers” was used by Napoleon to infer that a British merchant society was incapable of effectively waging war against the mighty nation of France. Napoleon was wrong. British merchants and industry provided the resources that enabled England, with half the population of France, to win the Napoleonic Wars.
**The phrase, “Nation of Shopkeepers”, did not originate with Napoleon. It first appeared in The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith in 1776.** Smith believed that when individuals pursue their self-interest, they indirectly promote the greater good of society. He argued that merchants, seeking their own self-interests, contribute significantly to the commonwealth by producing vital goods, services and tax revenues. Without this “invisible hand”, societies would be incapable of effectively pursuing self-sufficiency, prosperity and wealth creation.
- See more at: http://jobenomicsblog.com/nation-of-shopkeepers/#sthash.3HL3...

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Note added at 2 hrs (2015-04-02 03:47:12 GMT)
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That second quote includes *mindset*:
'"in a mindset that a nation of “shopkeepers” cannot compete and the "

Muriel Vasconcellos
United States
Local time: 13:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 80

4 hrs confidence:

(amongst others) petit bourgeois mentality

Explanation:
This is 'kruideniersgeest' in Dutch. The dictionary entry reads: 1. petit bourgeois mentality 2.narrow-mindedness 3.small-mindedness 4.provincialism 5. (American English also) Babbitry

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Note added at 11 hrs (2015-04-02 12:42:53 GMT)
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would shallowness then cover it?

Piet DM
Belgium
Local time: 22:46
Native speaker of:

Dutch

Notes to answerer

Asker: This is not the idea unfortunately. The idea is not narrow-minded which is a negative term in English, but someone without any negativity or bad intentions but who simply doesn't think too deeply about things.

23 hrs confidence:

jobsworth mentality

Explanation:
A jobsworth is a person who uses their job description in a deliberately uncooperative way, or who seemingly delights in acting in an obstructive or unhelpful manner.

"Jobsworth" is a British colloquial[1][2] word derived from the phrase "I can't do that, it's more than my job's worth", meaning it might lose the person their job: taking the initiative and performing an action, and perhaps in the process breaking a rule, is beyond what the person feels their job description allows. The Oxford English Dictionary defines it as "A person in authority (esp. a minor official) who insists on adhering to rules and regulations or bureaucratic procedures even at the expense of common sense."[1] Jonathon Green similarly defines "jobsworth" as "a minor factotum whose only status comes from enforcing otherwise petty regulations".[3]

An example of the phrase which gave rise to the term occurs in the 1965 Beatles movie Help!, when Roy Kinnear's character, the assistant scientist Algernon, exclaims "Well it's more than my job's worth to stop him when he's like this, he's out to rule the world...if he can get a government grant."

Another early use was by UK folk-singer Jeremy Taylor, in a song he wrote in the late 1960s:

Jobsworth, Jobsworth, It's more than me job's worth,
I don't care, rain or snow,
whatever you want the answer's no,
I can keep you waiting for hours in the queue,
and if you don't like it you know what you can do.

The term became widespread in vernacular English through its use in the popular 1970s BBC television programme That's Life! which featured Esther Rantzen covering various human interest and consumer topics. A "Jobsworth of the Week" commissionaire's hat was awarded each week to "a startling tale of going by the book".[4]

The term remains in use, particularly in the UK, to characterise inflexible employees, petty rule-following and excessive administration.[5]

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

23 hrs confidence:

small horizons person

Explanation:
maybe

AllegroTrans
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:46
Works in field
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 16

8 hrs confidence:

small-minded attitude

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 21:46
Native speaker of:

English
PRO pts in category: 8

Grading comment

Oh my God! Average Joe is absolutely perfect--you hit it on the head. Thanks!

Notes to answerer

Asker: This is not the idea unfortunately. The idea--at least in the Rio de la Plata region-- is not small-minded, but someone without any negativity or bad intentions but who simply doesn't think too deeply about things. Someone you ask a philosophical question to and they say, "Ah well, what can you do?"

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English translation: average Joe

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