Customer Reviews

Introduction to Spanish Translation

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

The book presents translation theory and information on the history of translation. It lists proverbs with their translations as well as cognates and false cognates. There's humorous examples of bad translations. Therefore, after reading it, you will know how to evaluate the quality of a translation without having been given much practice in translating. If you're looking for a book on translation theory, this will be a fine introduction. It isn't as good if you need to learn to translate.

Child's text is well conceived and clearly written. It is designed for third or fourth year college students. He comes to the subject as both experienced teacher and practicing translator. Each of the twenty-four lessons is brief and divided into six sections: history of translation, introduction to translation theory, practical problems and translation techniques, cognates, and, finally, proverbs and idioms. What this book does not have are exercises for practice. The book reads well and Childs is generally quite insightful, but other more recent introductions to Spanish/English offer more opportunities for practice.

I thought this book was extremely helpsul. It had a lot of common mistakes and cognates that would aid any student of spanish. We used it as our textbook at Lander University. It includes funny insight and thoughtful critique.

I have never written a book review before, but I feel compelled to do so in this instance. I just finished reading this book (up to the appendices), and would highly recommend it to anyone interested in translation or interpretation, regardless of the languages involved. I took it on a road trip, and even read some of the more interesting material aloud to my husband while he was driving. I have been studying Spanish for a number of years, and recently completed a program in Spanish Medical Interpretation. I plan on recommending this title to my instructor as required reading for the class. I believe the information contained within would help anyone interested in becoming a translator or interpreter advance his or her professional efforts. This book is awesome!

Note: The next edition (assuming there will be one) should be proofread a little closer, as there are some technical issues (i.e., phrases repeated on following pages) which leads me to believe that either some degree of cutting and pasting was involved, or whoever was in charge of typesetting didn't check the final proof before sending it to the printer. Not a huge issue, but as it occurred more than once, it became a little annoying after awhile.

the seller listed the product as it came, in great condition. Very prompt delivery :)