Translation Task

Today my students were translating into Spanish the following micro story:

My wife told me to stop pretending I’m a a flamingo. I put my foot down.

Obviously, you need to get rid of both the flamingo and the foot because there’s no direct equivalent in Spanish. Students came up with brilliant translations that included soldiers, giraffes, and spiders. My course is really working because they wouldn’t have been able to do this at the beginning of the semester.

4 thoughts on “Translation Task

  1. “My wife told me to stop pretending I’m a a flamingo. I put my foot down”

    Żona zapytała dlaczego myślę, że jestem oknem. Zamknąłem się.”

    “My wife asked why I think I’m a window. I closed (shut up).

    Żona poinformowała mnie, że nie, nie jestem odpływem. Zatkało mnie.

    “My wife told me that no, I’m not a drain. That clogged me (I was speechless).

    Liked by 1 person

  2. “My wife told me to stop pretending I’m a a flamingo. I put my foot down”

    Żona mówiła, żebym przestał udawać, że jestem Turkiem. Udawałem Greka.

    (My wife told me to stop pretending to be a Turk. I pretended to be Greek (I played dumb).

    Liked by 2 people

  3. “My wife told me to stop pretending I’m a a flamingo. I put my foot down”

    Okay, the last one today…..

    “Żona mówiła, żebym przestał udawać, że jestem niedźwiedziem. Zrobiłem jej przysługę”.

    My wife told me to stop pretending to be a bear. I did her a favor. (bear’s favor = disservice, ‘favor’ that does more harm than good).

    Liked by 1 person

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