The understanding of Spanish idioms among English Expats who use
Spanish as a second language.
Introduction
This essay will build on previous
research that I have conducted for summative 1 into the use of idioms in the
Spanish language. The idioms that I have used are ones which a language learner
of Spanish may find difficult to comprehend when out of context and even when
the learner is within the environment of the context where the idiom may be
used. Liontas (2003) describes three levels at which idioms occur, the lexical
level where the idiom can be translated word for word into an idiom in the
language learner’s native language and has the same or very similar meaning.
Then there are those that occur at a semi-lexical level, one or more lexemes
may be different when translated, but can still be understood when out of
context. And finally, idioms that occur at a post-lexical level, these idioms
are the most difficult for an L2 learner for several reasons, they may be
difficult to translate, bear no resemblance when translated to the L1 language
and even in context may leave the learner in
the dark (en el negro).
Methodology
My methodology was to speak to
people whose native language was English who also had a working knowledge of
the Spanish language, I would take an approach close to that of Griffin (2004),
however, in a more relaxed approach by bringing in the subject of idioms into
normal conversation. To find the ideal candidates I travelled to Spain with the
intention of engaging in conversations with friends of mine who live and work
in Spain, with the expectation that they would have a good enough understanding
of the Spanish language to interpret and make sense of the idioms presented to
them. My first task was to find and select ten idioms with various lexical
levels with which I could present to them. The ones that I selected where;
1. ‘Llegar
y besar el santo.’ (Bulnes A. 2015)
To arrive and kiss
the saint.
What a lucky
person you are.
2. ‘Para más INRI.’ (Bulnes A. 2015)
For more INRI.
What a cross to
bear.
3.
‘Estar
hecho un cristo.’ (Bulnes A. 2015)
To be made a
Christ.
Scruffy.
4.
‘Tomar
el pelo.’ (The Intrepid Guide. 2016)
To take the hair.
Pull one’s leg.
5.
‘Quedarse
en piedra.’ (The Intrepid Guide. 2016)
To stay in stone.
Be shocked.
6.
‘Estar
hecho un ají.’ (The Intrepid Guide. 2016)
To be made a chili.
To be very angry,
hopping mad.
7.
‘Dar
la lata.’ (The Intrepid Guide. 2016)
Give the can.
Pester, nuisance,
be a pain.
8.
‘Buscar
tres pies al gato.’ (Lingoda. 2013)
To look for three
feet on a cat.
Take a scenic
route.
9.
‘Meter
la pata.’ (Lingoda. 2013)
Put the paw.
Puts one’s foot in
it.
10.
‘Monto
un cristo.’ (The Intrepid Guide. 2013)
I ride a Christ.
Make a scene, kick
up a fuss.
For each of the ten idioms listed,
there is the idiom presented in Spanish, the English translation and the
English pragmatic meaning.
It was easy to bring the idioms
into conversation, all my friends know that I am a student, they also know that
I have been studying Spanish for nearly three years and each time I have met
them, they always ask me how my studies are going? I have my own property in
Spain which I visit regularly so I am not a stranger to them. During my
conversations, I would introduce the idioms by telling them that I was studying
a very interesting concept of idioms, a concept I believed that I would have
trouble with even though I had a good understanding of the Spanish language. I
would then ask them if they knew what each idiom meant? I had memorised the
idioms prior to my visit, so I did not have to read from a script, keeping the
conversation natural and hopefully interesting.
Analysis
I was surprised by the results; my
friends knew more about my ability with Spanish than I knew about theirs. I
spoke to over twenty people and found that of those, only seven had any
understanding of the Spanish language. Four of those were business owners, and
the other three were retirees. The business owners had all taken Spanish
lessons prior to moving to Spain and setting up their businesses. The reason
they had done that was to reduce the business set up costs involved with
combating the Spanish red tape; normally dealt with by using a translator or a
gestoria. (a Spanish citizen, who specialises as an advisor and administrator
in a particular legal issue, which could be as simple as registering cars with
the Spanish Department of Transport). All the business owners found that
despite their abilities in the Spanish language, they still needed to employ a
gestoria, but believed that learning Spanish has been of help in making their
business a success. It is also worth considering that of those who did not
speak any Spanish, some of those were also business owners, however almost all
their clientele is British. The three retirees were a married couple and a
widow, they all moved to Spain without any knowledge of Spanish and all take
Spanish lessons twice a week in the local community; they share the same
reasons for learning Spanish, they believe that it helps with their integration
with other communities outside their own, which they like to visit regularly,
in turn this has enhanced their social lives.
All seven of the participants had
trouble with the idioms to varying degrees, those with a slightly better
knowledge were the retirees; they understood the phrases Llegar y besar el santo and para
mas INRI. They explained to me that they had been told of these phrases
whilst on excursions to places of interest whilst living in the community.
Places of worship are quite often tourist attractions even for those with no
interest in religion. While the retirees could understand the contextual
meaning of both phrases, the business owners could translate them, but not
place them into a context to give them a meaning. All the Spanish speaking
participants could translate estar hecho
un cristo, but were completely wrong and out of context to the meaning;
they presumed that it was describing a good person, rather than the dishevelled
look of Jesus Christ. Tomar el pelo
was easy for all to translate and contextualise as it appears at a semi-lexical
level, although they described the English literal meaning as to take the piss. Quedarse en piedra, estar hecho un ají and dar la lata
were all successfully translated as they appear on an almost lexical level. Buscar tres pies al gato was easily
translated, but couldn’t be cross translated to an English contextual meaning
by the participants. One participant suggested that it could be to look for
something that is easy to find, as a cat had four paws, it would be easy to
find at least three of them. Meter la
pata was not translated by any of the participants, they heard the word
meter and wrongly translated it as a close cognate, thinking of it as a
measuring device, I did the same when I first looked, only because I had not
come across the word. As griffin 2004 had his students do, I also did some back
translating using various online translators and the phrase came back as poner la pata (google. 2017). Poner
means to put as does meter, however, poner is the verb that had been taught to
the participants in their learning. The last idiom was montar un cristo, although all participants could translate it,
none of them knew what the English literal translation was and failed to see
the significance of it after it was explained to them.
Prior to visiting Spain, I tried
using online translators to first translate and then to back translate the
idioms with varying degrees of accuracy to their original. For this experiment,
I only back translated the phrases, not the individual words. In Spanish words
have many meanings, as an example the verb tomar, to take, can also mean to
drink, depending on the context in which it is used. There is an uncountable
number of translators available on the internet, for that reason, I chose four
of those that came in the top search results. The ones that I used were Google
Translate, Online-Translator.com, Collins and WorldLingo. The results can be
seen below.
1. Llegar y besar el santo, google
translate produced ‘Llegar y besar al
santo.’
2. Para más INRI, all translators
correctly back translated.
3. Estar hecho un cristo, google translate
produced ‘Ser hecho un cristo’, ‘ser’
is the incorrect form of the verb ‘to be’ indicating a permanent state, as did
Online-Translator.com
4. Tomar el pelo, all translators
correctly back translated.
5. Quedarse en piedra. Online-Translator.com
only produced ‘En piedra’ and World lingo produced ‘para permanecer en piedra’.
6. Estar hecho un ají, Online-Translator
produced very interesting results, the translation to English became ‘a green
pepper is done’ and when back translated became ‘un pimiento verde es hecho’.
All other translators produced the incorrect verb for ‘to be’.
7. Dar la lata, Google translate and
Collins Free online translator produced accurate results. However, WorldLingo
returned ‘dé la poder’ and Online-Translator.com produced ‘dé la lata’, where ‘dé’
is the imperative of ‘dar’, ‘to give’ and ‘poder’ is, ‘to be able’.
8. Buscar tres pies al gato, all
translators changed the infinitive form of the verb ‘buscar’, ‘to look’ to ‘busque’,
‘I looked/searched’, placing the phrase on the past tense.
9. Meter la pata, Google translate
produced a very literal translation ‘screw up’ and when back translated
produced ‘arrugar’, ‘to wrinkle/crease’. All other translators correctly
translated, however when back translated, they used the verb ‘poner’.
10. Monto un cristo, all the translators
produced accurate results.
Conclusion
The data that I have received is
not fully representative of all Spanish speaking expats, the reason for this is
that, two of the business owners were a couple and so were two of the retirees;
as I was talking to these people as couples, they had the opportunity to
converse and work out the idioms together. It is also noteworthy that the
business owners no longer took Spanish lessons and all of the participants had
lived in Spain for different lengths of time, which may also reflect in their
abilities. However, although the data does not produce one hundred percent
accurate results, it does provide an indication of the L2 language abilities of
expats. It can be seen from the back-translation examples that I have used,
online translators cannot be relied on, and some retrieve better results than
others. Rather than being subjective about rating them, I will leave it for the
reader to try them out and decide. Trying them out can be quite amusing,
especially if you know beforehand what the returning results should be. For example,
if using google translate and you wanted to know the translation for I am hot,
the returning results would be soy caliente, word for word, that is correct,
but google does not explain the pragmatic meaning and as seidlhofer (2009)
explains, it can produce amusing results for the listener. In this instance,
soy caliente has the pragmatic meaning, I am horny, what is worse is that soy
is a conjugation of the verb ser, to be, which indicates that the speaker is
permanently horny, rather than using the verb conjugation of estar indicating
to be in a non-permanent state. Google fails to take into consideration the way
in which words are used within context, the correct translation should be tengo
caliente, which to a new learner of Spanish would look strange as the word for
word translation is, I have hot, however this is the appropriate way to say it,
for example, tengo caliente, abre la ventana, translates to, I am hot, open the window. My findings
are encouraging for myself and I am sure that they will aide my Spanish
language learning in the future, I will think about what I say, before I say
it. I will continue to receive the correct pedagogy, books alone cannot replace
a native Spanish teacher and finally, immersion and putting what I have learned
into practice with plenty of mistakes along the way will keep me on course to
one day being fluent.
References.
Bulnes A. (2015). Matador Network: 13 Phrases That Prove
Spaniards Are Obsessed With Religion. Retrieved From https://matadornetwork.com/life/13-phrases-prove-spaniards-obsessed-religion/
Collins. (2017). Collins: Online Translator. Retrieved from https://www.collinsdictionary.com/translator
Google. (2017). Google: Translate. Retrieved from https://translate.google.co.uk/
Griffin F. (2004).
Idioms and Back Translation: Business
Communications Quarterly, 67(4), 455-464. DOI: 10.1177/1080569904270987
Liontas J.I. (2003). Killing Two Birds with One Stone:
Understanding Spanish VP Idioms in and out of Context: Hispania, 86(2) 289-301
Lingoda. (2016). Lingoda: 40 Funny Spanish Idioms. Retrieved
from https://www.lingoda.com/blog/40-funny-spanish-idioms
Online-Translator.com. (2017). Online-Translator.com:
Translator. Retrieved from http://www.online-translator.com/
Seidlhofer B. (2009). Accomodation and the Idiom Principle
in English as a Lingua Franca: Intercultural
Pragmatics, 6(2), 195-215. DOI: 10.1515/IPRG.2009.011
The Intrepid Guide. (2016). The Intrepid Guide: 25
Unforgettably Hilarious Spanish Expressions & Idioms [Infographic].
Retrieved from https://www.theintrepidguide.com/25-hilarious-spanish-expressions-and-idioms/#.WMqFWKJBrIU
WorldLingo. (2014). WorldLingo: Free Translation Online.
Retrieved from http://www.worldlingo.co.uk/products_services/worldlingo_translator.html
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