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bebootsQ: How do you turn a piece of paper into a lazy dog in three steps?
A: A piece of paper is an ink-lined plane, an inclined plane is a slope up, a slow pup is a lazy dog.
*rimshot*
Okay, so I like puns. I'm irrationally amused by them. More than I should be, I think. And in my English-French translation class today, we discussed how to translate things like advertising slogans, because they often have word play and cultural references and such that may not physically exist in the language/culture you're translating to.
Some of my favourites from the list were:
"If I only have one life, let me live it as a blonde" (For hair colouring) I think that we ended up coming up with a pun in Québecois French with "blonde" (the hair colour) and "blonde", as in "ma blonde", which is slang for my girlfriend.
"Let the train take the strain" (for some British rail company). I think one of the guys in my group came up with "Pour n'avoir rien à craindre, prenez le train-dre", which translates, roughly, to "So you have nothing to worry about, take the train", except the word for train has a verb ending tacked onto the end of it so it rimes with "craindre" (to worry). It would never actually fly, but the way that he said it, waggling his eyebrows? Funny as hell.
We didn't get to this one, but I love it: "It sits as lightly on a heavy meal as it does on your conscience." (for Jell-O)
We did get into this class-wide argument on how to translate Taco Bell's slogan "Think outside the bun." Clearly, it's a play on the expression "Think outside the box", telling consumers to think beyond hamburgers and think about tacos. We trashed the original slogan altogether, in my group, translating it as "C'est comme une fiesta dans ta bouche" (It's like a fiesta in your mouth!). A couple groups tried to translate it directly, but used the word "pain" (bread) which had us all descend into arguments, because "bread" doesn't immediately bring to mind hamburgers, right? Especially not in France. And then our prof said the most hilarious line (maybe you had to have been there and heard it said). He was saying that no, the girl's proposed translation would never work, because her word choice didn't convey "la réalité du 'bun.'" He said exactly what it sounds like - it didn't convey "the reality of 'buns'", like, hamburger buns have abstract connotations circling around them that invoke certain feelings and thoughts, and yeah, it's true, but he said it so seriously everyone started laughing. XD
Anyway, I don't have a picture that's thematically appropriate for this post, so here, have a picture of some Olympic athletes running with scissors:
A: A piece of paper is an ink-lined plane, an inclined plane is a slope up, a slow pup is a lazy dog.
*rimshot*
Okay, so I like puns. I'm irrationally amused by them. More than I should be, I think. And in my English-French translation class today, we discussed how to translate things like advertising slogans, because they often have word play and cultural references and such that may not physically exist in the language/culture you're translating to.
Some of my favourites from the list were:
"If I only have one life, let me live it as a blonde" (For hair colouring) I think that we ended up coming up with a pun in Québecois French with "blonde" (the hair colour) and "blonde", as in "ma blonde", which is slang for my girlfriend.
"Let the train take the strain" (for some British rail company). I think one of the guys in my group came up with "Pour n'avoir rien à craindre, prenez le train-dre", which translates, roughly, to "So you have nothing to worry about, take the train", except the word for train has a verb ending tacked onto the end of it so it rimes with "craindre" (to worry). It would never actually fly, but the way that he said it, waggling his eyebrows? Funny as hell.
We didn't get to this one, but I love it: "It sits as lightly on a heavy meal as it does on your conscience." (for Jell-O)
We did get into this class-wide argument on how to translate Taco Bell's slogan "Think outside the bun." Clearly, it's a play on the expression "Think outside the box", telling consumers to think beyond hamburgers and think about tacos. We trashed the original slogan altogether, in my group, translating it as "C'est comme une fiesta dans ta bouche" (It's like a fiesta in your mouth!). A couple groups tried to translate it directly, but used the word "pain" (bread) which had us all descend into arguments, because "bread" doesn't immediately bring to mind hamburgers, right? Especially not in France. And then our prof said the most hilarious line (maybe you had to have been there and heard it said). He was saying that no, the girl's proposed translation would never work, because her word choice didn't convey "la réalité du 'bun.'" He said exactly what it sounds like - it didn't convey "the reality of 'buns'", like, hamburger buns have abstract connotations circling around them that invoke certain feelings and thoughts, and yeah, it's true, but he said it so seriously everyone started laughing. XD
Anyway, I don't have a picture that's thematically appropriate for this post, so here, have a picture of some Olympic athletes running with scissors:
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no subject
Date: 2010-01-29 08:45 pm (UTC)Actually, I was meaning to ask you, what are all the French courses you took? I'm planning on taking a few next year, and I trying to figure out where I should be looking. (I need to take a placement test, I think, because if FREN 211/212 is anything like SWED 211/212, it'd be too easy...)
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Date: 2010-01-29 09:57 pm (UTC)I also took French 254 (Intro. to French/English translation), French 354 (French to English translation) and now I'm taking French 454 (English to French translation). Those courses have done SO much to improve my understanding and mastery of French. They come highly recommended.
I took that month's worth of classes in Lille, and apparently that translated into two classes' worth of credit: French 297 and 298 (apparently they follow directly after French 212?) Anyway, I then had to take French 301, which is a prerequisite for like every 400-level French class, I think. That may be an exaggeration. And then I hopped into honours, so I don't TECHNICALLY need my minor any more, but I still like practicing French, so I'll probably take more classes next year too.
Uh... does that kind of sort of answer your question?
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Date: 2010-01-31 05:41 am (UTC)French 212 is SO boring...
In that case, I will definitely endeavour to avoid having to take 212. (Hopefully my French grammar hasn't degraded so much that I have to take it....)
I'm kind of looking at some of the French translation courses, which is why I'm hoping I can test out of 211/212 - with all the LING courses I want to take, I wouldn't be able to fit them into my schedule unless I did summer school, which would conflict with summer work. And 212 is a prereq for 254, so...
As for 301, I think it's a prereq for most 400-level classes, except for 454.
But, yes. Very helpful comment. (Now I just need to contact the French department so that I can do the placement test - they have it over e-class, so I'm thinking perhaps over Reading Week, before things get too horribly hectic.)
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Date: 2010-01-31 04:59 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-31 08:52 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-01-29 09:51 pm (UTC)I love a group called "Les Luthiers", who make amazing music with the strangest musical instruments, but I generally can't recommend them to people on the Net because their jokes are all in Spanish and they make abundant use of puns. Even with subtitles, and even with the subtitles being carefully translated to replace the puns with other ones, sometimes the jokes are lost.
Here is precisely one of their sketches that makes fun of how hard translations can be:
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Date: 2010-01-29 10:00 pm (UTC)I still love wordplay. :D
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Date: 2010-01-30 03:10 am (UTC)Les Luthiers are amazing. They don't often do jokes in pseudo-French, like in this one (the usual victim is English and, of course, Spanish), but I thought you might enjoy this one.
I made a small compilation of videos that had halfway decent subtitles in English...
Here's what I've compiled so far, in case you want to check some more of their stuff. ^__^