Translation of Facebook

Facebook in Spanish

Good business for who?

It was only a matter of time for this to happen. The growth of this website has been so dramatic that they are going international. Facebook is currently being translated into Spanish, French and German.

Did they hire the best translators possible for the job?. Well, no… because the ones in charge of this task are its millions of users through Facebook’s platform F8.
The process is the following: Once the user logs in, the site asks them to participate in the translation process by installing the “Translation” application that will allow them to translate words and phrases appearing on the website in English into their mother tongue. However, it is more complex than that. A release from Facebook explained: "This doesn't mean that once a user has finished translating the site will be available in that language…In order to get the best possible quality translations, we have a voting system. Other translators of that language will be able to vote on the quality of the translation by giving it a thumbs up or thumbs down” .

This is a great business for Facebook which will now have access to the hispanic market and to users who do not speak English. But in COSMO translations we wonder… what about the translators?. And you, as a reader may ask yourself: Is there some kind of compensation of prize for the Facebook’s users that will be part of this? Also, not. The striking thing is that thousands of them have already enlisted to participate in the process. We will have to wait and see how this turns out.

The translated versions of Facebook will be available at the end of March and once these are completed, other languages will follow that still have to be determined.

COSMO translations team translates from English into Spanish and Spanish into English. Visit our website to find out about other available services. www.cosmotranslations.com

Spanish English Translations - Spanish Language

English Spanish Translations: Latin American variety

When you need to translate a document into Spanish and your priority is to create the right impact, it is important to have in mind the country of origin of the target audience. Are we talking Spain or a country in Latin America?

Spanish is the official language in more than 20 countries and is spoken by more than 350 million people around the world (this figure is for natives only). So, it is only natural that differences will arise among Spanish speakers coming from different locations.

COSMO translations (www.cosmotranslations.com) points out in this article the main differences one may encounter between these two varieties which can be, in some way, compared to the differences between British English and American English. Nevertheless, one should bear in mind that these differences are not so great that will prevent that two speakers coming from Spain and Mexico or Argentina communicate with each other, but it is very probable that certain misunderstandings may arise during a conversation.

The main differences can be grouped into:

(i) Vocabulary: for example the word “ordenador” in Spain means “computer” whereas in Latin America the one used to refer to such is “computadora”. Same happens with the word “gafas” used in Spain for glasses (to read) whereas in Venezuela the word “lentes” is used and “anteojos” in Argentina.

(ii) Pronunciation: This is a remarkable difference between native people coming from Latin America and those coming from Spain. The Spaniards tend to pronounce the z like “th” (like the sound of “thin”) which results in quite a strong accent compared to someone coming from Peru. In Latin America the “z” is often pronounce like a common “s” (“sun”).

(iii) Grammar: the use of the pronoun for the second person singular differ. “Tú” (Spain) and “Vos” (Argentina). The same happens with the plural which in Spain would be “vosotros” and in Latin America “ustedes”.

Spanish is a complex language and not so easy to learn. Leaving these differences behind, it is important to note that in Spain there are 5 different varieties of Spanish and in Latin America even more. But as previously stated, if you are a student of Spanish worrying about the nationality of your tutor and picking-up the wrong accent, we would recommend not stressing so much over this. At the end, you will have no problem to make yourself understood in one or the other culture. But if you are really serious about having a good translation done, and creating the right impact, then I would say: leave it to us!.

COSMO translations (www.cosmotranslations.com) team translates from English into Spanish and Spanish into English with a specialization in Latin American Spanish.