Dragaera

A Linguistic Note

daveg at frost.he.net daveg at frost.he.net
Wed Dec 15 14:03:39 PST 2004

> 
> This led to the occasional bizarre multi-way translations as the
> Russo/Brazilian kids spoke Portuguese to the anglos and the Russo/Anglos,
> who then translated into Spanish for the Mexicans.  Periodicly one of
> the Russo/Anglos would then translate it into Russian for his
> grandparents.
> 

I remember a two-way translation job I had to do back in college.  On the one 
hand I had a fellow from Punjab who spoke with a hindi accent.  He spoke
quickly, especially when excited.  His English was fine.  One the other hand 
I had a fellow from the hills of West Virginia.  He was quite smart, but
could fool you with his slow hillbilly accent.  There was nothing wrong
with his English either.

These two fellers couldn't understand a word the other said.  I would sit
between them and translate English into English for them.

Dave