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Something lost (or gained) in translation - Printable Version

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Something lost (or gained) in translation - labradors - 01-02-2010

Here's something amusing that I encounter, occasionally, when translating Spanish recipes to English. If ALL of the details of the translation are not checked carefully, the resulting recipe could be VERY different from the original.

In particular, we know that is is very common to find the following abbreviations in many English recipes:
  • C = Cup
  • t = Teaspoon
  • T = Tablespoon
Well, some Spanish recipes do the same thing for the appropriate Spanish words:
  • T = Taza
  • c = Cucharadita
  • C = Cucharada
That means that C means "cup" in English recipes, but it means "tablespoon" in Spanish recipes. Likewise, T means "tablespoon" in English, but means "cup" in Spanish. Could you imagine how a recipe would turn out if the rest of the WORDS of the recipe were translated, but if those abbreviations were allowed to stand? Yikes!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - cjs - 01-02-2010

don't even want to go there, that's for sure!!!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - foodfiend - 01-02-2010

A friend sent me some Australian cooking magazines and I needed to not only translate the measurements, but also some of the ingredients (icing sugar is actually powdered sugar, etc.). To be honest, it was actually quite fun!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - labradors - 01-02-2010

Vicci,

Do you use Firefpx or just Internet Explorer as your web browser? If you DO use Firefox, check out the Converter extension. When you are on a web page that contains measurements, you can right click on the page and select "Convert entire page," and it will change something like
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 l milk
  • 100 g flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 50 g butter for baking
  • 100 g icing sugar
to something like:
  • 4 eggs
  • 1/4 l (0.25 L = 8.45 fl oz) milk
  • 100 g (100 g = 3.53 oz) flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 50 g (50 g = 1.77 oz) butter for baking
  • 100 g (100 g = 3.53 oz) icing sugar
That's always handy when I visit sites that are in other countries, such as the Australian Mushroom Growers' Association. Of course, it won't magically convert the magazine pages, but if the magazine has a website, maybe the same recipes will be available there, and then you would be able to use the converter.

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - foodfiend - 01-03-2010

Wow, thanks Labs! I do use Firefox, but never knew that this converter existed. How cool!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - labradors - 01-03-2010

Also forgot to mention that if you highlight a single measurement on a page, then just right click, that single conversion will appear in the drop-down context menu. If you click on that, it will pop up a "custom conversion" window where you can also type in other conversions (e.g. something from the magazine). It even handles some fractions, so that "1/4" gets translated to "0.25", but it only uses fractions in the results for length (i.e. cm to inch) conversions.

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - cjs - 01-03-2010

I use the metric conversion forumlas that are in the back of my FLC.

grams to ounces (for example) - divide grams by 28.35 - it's fast.

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - foodfiend - 01-03-2010

Quote:


grams to ounces (for example) - divide grams by 28.35 - it's fast.



Provided I can find a working calculator...

Labs, thanks for suggesting the measurement conversion tool and another way to use it. The only other one I use is converting a web page to a pdf file (for, of course, recipes). There are probably billions of others, but I'm finally starting!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - cjs - 01-03-2010

Vicci, to me a calculator in the kitchen is a must - I have three!!!

Re: Something lost (or gained) in translation - foodfiend - 01-03-2010

Jean, I do have a specific "kitchen calculator", but it often (somehow) ends up in DH's office (where he has 2, perhaps they're all visiting with each other???).

I'm going to pick up a solar-powered calculator and attach a chain to it...