| How to avoid doing it: | | | | 5. Thinking in two languages simultaneously |
| | | | (which is necessary for translating) is very |
| 1. Refuse to give translations for new | | | | hard. People pay simultaneous interpreters |
| vocabulary yourself. Pretend/admit you don't | | | | quite a lot of money to do this and you need |
| speak the student's language. | | | | to be very good at both languages to do it |
| | | | successfully. ("If you are a professional |
| 2. Encourage the students to guess the | | | | interpreter you may translate in my lessons, |
| meaning of words they don't know or to ask | | | | no problem" - funnily enough I haven't come |
| each other for help or to look it up in a | | | | across any such students yet!) |
| monolingual dictionary instead. (See TT6 , | | | | |
| TT9 and TT20 for further explanation). | | | | 6. False friends can cause problems. In |
| | | | Italian the word "sensibile" means sensitive. |
| 3. Explain that you are a teacher, not an | | | | Not sensible. The word "conveniente" means |
| interpreter. | | | | cheap. Not convenient. I could go on... |
| | | | |
| 4. Remind students that you are a teacher, | | | | 7. Often there is only one word in the |
| not a dictionary. | | | | students' language to translate two English |
| | | | words. For example: the Italian for make is |
| Why to avoid doing it: | | | | "fare" and so is the Italian for "do". The |
| | | | Italian for "job" is "lavoro" and so the |
| 1. If student's translate words and you don't | | | | Italian for "work". In such cases translating |
| speak their language you won't know if | | | | is actually the origin of the students' |
| they've really understood or if they've | | | | confusion over the words, not the solution to |
| translated it correctly. | | | | it. |
| | | | |
| 2. There often isn't a direct translation for | | | | Extra Info: |
| a word or phrase, there is only an | | | | |
| "equivalent", sometimes not even that. Try | | | | If I encounter students who are convinced |
| translating a couple of modal verbs (like | | | | that translating English into their own |
| "must" or "would" and you'll see what I mean) | | | | language is an essential part of learning |
| and I doubt very much that there is a | | | | English I try to discourage them by |
| translation for "Yorkshire Pudding" in any | | | | explaining like this: Let's imagine that I am |
| language (because it's something solely | | | | a piano-teacher and a student wants to learn |
| British so other countries will presumably | | | | to play the piano so s/he has piano lessons |
| never have needed a word for it). "get" is | | | | with me. S/he may not be able to play the |
| hard to translate, as are phrasal verbs. | | | | piano but s/he is an expert guitarist and |
| | | | brings his/her guitar to the lesson. I play a |
| 3. Translating some things word for word | | | | tune on the piano and s/he tries to copy it |
| doesn't help. For example: My mother -in-law | | | | on the guitar. But it doesn't sound the same. |
| once told me that my husband is a "pezzo di | | | | In fact it doesn't sound like a piano at all. |
| pane" which translates as "a piece of bread". | | | | Well, it wouldn't, would it? I suggest that s |
| I was none the wiser for having translated | | | | he tries playing it on the piano but s/he |
| this. Did it mean he was soft, I asked | | | | tells me that s/he will only be able to play |
| myself? Or stale? (It actually means he's a | | | | it on the piano if s/he can play it on the |
| good sort, apparently.) | | | | guitar first. The lesson continues with me |
| | | | playing the piano and the student |
| 4. Translating slows students down which | | | | "translating" the tunes onto the guitar. At |
| means you run the risk of getting bogged down | | | | the end of this course of piano lessons, do |
| in the fruitless pursuit of a word which | | | | you think the student will be able to play |
| isn't English anyway. | | | | the piano? I think not. |
| | | | |