Una de las maneras más simples de poner nuestra oferta comercial a disposición de los clientes, es mediante la traducción de toda la información de nuestros productos al inglés, el idioma en el que se realizan la mayoría de las transacciones, la lingua franca de los negocios y, en gran medida, de la ciencia y de Internet. El idioma inglés se utiliza en forma general como mecanismo vehicular de comunicación comercial en el mundo, y ya no constituye un referente singular de una comunidad en particular.
Los servicios de traducción nos asegurarán poder transmitir nuestra misión y nuestros valores a los clientes a través de versiones bilingües o multilingües de los documentos e informes de nuestra empresa. Es necesario que cada documento importante de nuestra empresa esté traducido, especialmente cuando se trata de llegar a clientes extranjeros. Esto nos proporciona una ventaja por encima de los competidores que hacen negocios solo en castellano.
Pensemos en las empresas que lograron presencia global, veremos que todas planificaron su proceso de internacionalización para operar más allá de su propia localidad. Lo hicieron recurriendo a los servicios profesionales de traducción que les facilitó y perfeccionó la comunicación con sus clientes en otros países.
Autora: Veronica Magan Laca, Traductora e Intérprete de inglés especializada en desarrollo industrial.
Dealing with the heavy machines and automation industry has its particularities, especially when it comes to breaking down the terms and conditions of each agreement, either when translating or drafting the documents. We often see terms such as «Lease» or «Rent», which in some contexts may have certain implications and, in others, they may carry significant subtleties. I have found a very helpful article on the Business Dictionary which delves into the similarities and differences of both words, transcribed below.
When purchasing something is not quite possible (or desired) the option for many individuals and companies comes down to leasing or renting. While both have similarities, getting access to an asset for a limited period, there are significant differences as well. This article will help you understand those differences when your decision to lease vs. rent comes up.
Leasing
A lease is a contract to rent an asset, be it land, a building, or machinery, for a set period of time and for set payment terms. Leases often come with many conditions in terms of the allowed use of the asset and even required maintenance terms.
A typical lease is often long term, ranging from 1 year to as many as 10 or 20 years. Significant penalties can be incurred by either party, the lessor (owner of the asset) or the lessee (user of the asset), in the event that either party violates the lease.
It is also not uncommon for the asset to revert to the lessee at the end of the lease automatically or for what is termed a ‘bargain purchase option’ where the asset can be bought for significantly less than it is worth. This means that once the lease runs its course you have effectively bought the asset, though when considering the lease payments often for far more than it was actually worth.
From an accounting and tax perspective leases typically fall into two main categories, operating leases and capital leases. If the lease terms meet certain criteria the lease will be considered capital, including; 1) the value of the lease payments makes up most of the fair market value of the asset, 2) the life of the lease makes up most of the effective useful life of the asset, and 3) there is a bargain purchase option.
Capital leases require you to record the leased asset as a fixed asset on your financial statements and also record the lease obligation as a liability. Over time the value of the asset is amortized and the lease obligation decreases through payments made.
An operating lease has no such requirement and you can simply expense the lease payments each time they are made, for accounting and tax purposes.
Rent
Renting typically involves a shorter time period, often 1 year maximum, with the option to extend after the term at the discretion of both parties. Rentals are more suited to the temporary use of assets (land, buildings, or machinery) when the expectation is that it will not be needed long term. Rental contracts are generally far more casual than lease agreements, where a formal agreement with many terms will be drawn up.
Alternatively, if the cost of renting/leasing the asset is high it can be rented for a short period only when absolutely needed and then returned. Often this happens with construction work, where a very expensive piece of equipment (i.e. a crane) is needed for a relatively short time period but not afterwards. There’s no need to buy the asset or even lease it for several years, so a short rental period is appropriate.
Rental costs are always expensed on the income statement for both accounting and tax purposes.
Lease vs. Rent
The decision to lease vs. rent really depends on what you need. If the asset is integral to your business and you need it there all the time then leasing is your best option. The security and guarantee provided by a lease is important, and it ensures your business has what it needs. For short term periods where you don’t need an asset in your business year round then renting is likely a better option. Renting may cost more over that short term period but the total cost to you will be lower since you won’t have the asset for many years.
Other areas where rentals work out are in industries that are rapidly evolving technology wise. In some industries assets become outdated within 1 or 2 years, and a lease could leave you holding outdated assets for 5 or 10 year terms. Ultimately the decision to lease or rent depends on your needs and your industry.
Are you confounded by courtroom communication and longing to learn some legal lingo?
All professions, industries and many other specialist groupings have their own codes, languages and acronyms which can exclude outsiders – intentionally or otherwise. Lucy Read is a family law barrister and chair of The Transparency Project. She joined Michael Rosen and Dr Laura Wright on Radio 4’s Word of Mouth to discuss the language of the courtroom.
Here’s Lucy’s guide to some basic terms…
1. Barristers and solicitors
All barristers and solicitors are lawyers, but a lawyer can’t be both – they are either one or the other.
2. Counsel / Queen’s Counsel (QC)
Counsel is another name for a barrister. When the judge asks for «counsel only» it means she wants to see only the lawyers without their clients. Queen’s Counsel (QC) is a senior barrister who has been given the rank of «QC» as a mark of excellence. Also called a silk (they «take silk» – something to do with the special garments worn by QCs). Any barrister who isn’t a QC is a «junior barrister» no matter how senior they are. Barristers who are experienced but not senior enough to be a QC are called a «senior junior». Yes, daft isn’t it?
3. Chambers
Chambers are what the rest of the world call offices. Mainly different because barristers don’t (generally) work in a «firm» or company, but are independent sole traders who club together to pay for a room in chambers and share clerks (employed staff who receive enquiries, get in work and allocate it).
4. Skeleton
No, it’s probably not what you’re thinking. Skeleton is a written legal argument in outline form.
5. Submissions
Submissions are the lawyers’ speeches at the end of the case (this is sometimes done in writing).
6. Issue
A phrase used by lawyers to mean the things that are in dispute – but only the ones that actually need to be decided for the judge to make a decision. (Cue affronted client when told that something that is very important to them is «not an issue» and hurried explanation that what is important to the client is not always relevant for the judge…).
7. Ex parte
This Latin phrase means «in the absence of a party» and applies in family cases mainly when one party goes to court to get a domestic violence injunction in place before the other party is told (because if warned in advance they might take unwanted action). An «ex parte» hearing also includes a hearing that the other party is aware of but excluded from, such as in a national security context.
8. Without prejudice
This relates to private correspondence and negotiation that the judge should not be told about until after they have decided the case.
9. Prima facie
More Latin. Prima facie means «on the face of it». Someone who has a «prima facie case» is someone who has presented enough evidence for a case to be looked at, but doesn’t mean the case will necessarily be heard in full once the details have been thoroughly scrutinised.
10. Housekeeping
Housekeeping refers to the administrative tasks that need to be sorted out at the start of a hearing, such as which order are the witnesses going in and checking everyone has the appropriate documentation.
11. Part-heard
Part-heard is when a hearing breaks off to a later date half way through the evidence. When the case is part-heard the same advocates and judge have to continue the case until the evidence is finished and the judgment given – which means lots of diary juggling.
12. My learned friend
«My learned friend» is what barristers call one another in court when they have forgotten the other one’s name.
13. My friend
Simply «My friend» is what barristers call solicitors when they are in pompous git mode (making the point that the solicitor isn’t a barrister).
14. Disguised compliance
Disguised compliance is a complicated term social workers use when they think parents are lying but can’t prove it (i.e. when parents disguise the fact they disagree there is anything wrong with their parenting by superficially doing what they are asked to in order to get social workers off their back). «Putting on a show» or «game playing» would work just as well.
15. Paramountcy principle
Paramountcy principle means that a child’s welfare trumps everything else.
16. Paginated bundle
The world «paginated» refers to numbering the pages of a document, and a «bundle» is what lawyers call the files of court papers, put in order and separated into numbered sections so that the judge, lawyers and witnesses can all find the same documents in the same place (in theory). A «paginated bundle» is therefore simply the files of court papers, with page numbers, and separated into numbered sections.
If you require quality translation or interpreting services, Certified Translator and Interpreter Veronica Magan Laca and her team are the right partners. Our expertise in English and Spanish ensures accurate and culturally sensitive communication for your business. Whether you need official document translation or real-time interpreting, we are ready to help you break down language barriers and reach your goals through multilingual communication. Get in touch through veronica@vmltraducciones.com.ar to discuss your project and receive a personalized quote.
Sometimes it is important to go back to basics. For human interaction, one of the basics is language, the system of communication that, when applied at its best, allows us to understand each other, share, cooperate, and pull each other towards a better place. When on a collective journey towards a common objective such as the Sustainable Development Goals, with a rallying cry of “leaving no one behind” and a central aim of “reaching the furthest behind first”, this system of communication is fundamental to move beyond just the rhetorical: to be truly reached, the furthest one behind will need to understand what she is being told, and most likely, that exchange will have to be done in her own language. That principle should apply to all aspects of development, including global health.
With roughly 7000 living languages in the world, miscommunication is inevitable, but there are times and places when particular care should be taken to ensure that the message is clear and fully understood.
Take the highly volatile situation of Ebola in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) for instance. Since the outbreak was declared in August 2018, there have been over 1000 confirmed and probable cases in North Kivu and Ituri provinces. Because the trauma of conflict has compounded the impact of the outbreak on the population, community engagement and ownership of the response are particularly important in the DRC.
Last month, Translators without Borders released the results of a rapid study evaluating the effectiveness of risk communication materials on Ebola used in North Kivu. The results are striking: they show that materials used for the response—posters, brochures, and consent forms for the Ebola vaccine, some in French, some in standard or local Congolese Swahili—are not fully understood. Basic vocabulary in French related to Ebola was not recognised in focus groups and half of the participants misinterpreted a poster inviting the sick to present to the nearest health centre as the complete opposite, that they would not be welcome there. Consent forms used for the Ebola vaccine were also generally misunderstood, as they contained words in standard Swahili, French, and English that were not known to the participants, raising further ethical issues. This study presents the epitome of where and when the basics of language should be better applied to reach “the furthest behind” in global health.
Global health research in general should concern itself with language. As in most scientific fields, English is established as the dominant tongue. Some will rightfully argue that researchers need a lingua franca, a common language in which to communicate, but English is not strictly that: for some (indeed, a minority) it is their mother tongue, but for the rest it is a second language, one that can be mastered at varying levels of fluency, or not mastered at all. That clearly implies that when it comes to the handiwork of research—the searching for funds, the publishing, the reading, the presenting—not everyone is on the same plane, and some are left behind.
A Comment published this week presents the reflections and ideas of a group of francophone researchers during a workshop at the Africa Health Agenda International Conference (AHAIC) in Kigali, Rwanda, last month on this very issue. Our readers will appreciate that we could not in good conscience publish this Comment in any language other than French, and will, we hope, take the extra step of accessing the English translation in the supplementary material if needed. The main message is that linguistic isolation and the barriers it creates are real and deeply ingrained, but also that there is a way forward. The solutions will require more consideration of the needs of different linguistic groups, the creation of support networks, and more linguistic collaboration in general.
One initiative that fits neatly within these criteria is the Science and Language Mobility Scheme Africa, led by the African Academy of Sciences in partnership with the Wellcome Trust and Institut Pasteur. This brand-new programme funds research done by anglophone, francophone, and maybe soon lusophone researchers in language regions other than their own, in order to strengthen scientific collaboration while building language skills and improving cultural understanding between researchers from different linguistic backgrounds.
If you require quality translation or interpreting services, Certified Translator and Interpreter Veronica Magan Laca and her team are the right partners. Our expertise in English and Spanish ensures accurate and culturally sensitive communication for your business. Whether you need official document translation or real-time interpreting, we are ready to help you break down language barriers and reach your goals through multilingual communication. Get in touch through veronica@vmltraducciones.com.ar to discuss your project and receive a personalized quote.
Compartimos hoy el siguiente artículo sobre revisión de textos que hallamos en la web: Top 10 proofreading tips (en inglés) y que resulta muy útil para revisar la redacción. Estos son diez puntos básicos que toda revisión que se precie debe contemplar:
News that a pay review body has recommended pay rises of up to 32% for judges, taking the salary of the most senior from over £180,000 p.a. to over £240,000, has aroused comment in the UK media. Such huge rises for a small group that is already very well paid stand in stark contrast with the situation of other public sector workers such as teachers, doctors and nurses, whose pay has been capped at low levels for many years. The suggested rises, designed to end a recruitment crisis which has seen top barristers preferring to remain in their very well remunerated positions rather than moving to the bench, may not be approved in full. In the meantime, the story gives us the opportunity to look at the interesting noun judge.
A judge is, of course, the person whose job is to make decisions in a court of law. While the role of judges varies in different judicial systems, in all of them a judge is a person who decides, whether about the meaning of the law or about the outcome of a particular case. The second meaning of judge in Macmillan Dictionary also refers to decision-making, in this case deciding who wins a competition. More broadly, a judge is anyone who decides what the correct thing to do is when there is a disagreement: the example given for this sense refers to a referee being the sole judge of the rules that apply to a sport or game.
If we say that someone is a good or a bad judge of something or no judge of something, we are talking about whether their opinions are generally valid or not; so if someone is a good judge of character, they are usually right about what a person is really like. If we say that someone should be the judge of something, we mean that they should rely on their own opinions rather than accepting those of others. If you tell someone that you will be the judge of something, you are telling them in no uncertain terms that you do not want or need their advice.
The first, judicial meaning of the word, meanwhile, is referenced in the expression judge and jury: if you ask who made someone judge and jury in a matter of importance, you are saying that they have too much power and that it would be better if that power was shared.
Judge came into English from the Old French ‘juge’, which came from the Latin word for a judge, ‘judex’. There is no space in this post to look at the related verb judge, but you can find all its meanings and its many grammatical patterns here.
We have recently read in K International this interesting and funny article about the history and usage of today’s common internet symbols # (hashtag / etiqueta), @ (at / arroba) and Like Button (botón «me gusta»). Don’t waste this opportunity to go into the matter and know more. Here’s the transcription of the article:
The online world has a vocabulary all its own. And it’s not all words, either. But while we think of “hashtags” and “likes” as modern English inventions, they go back much further. In fact, these Internet symbols are much older than the Internet, and they weren’t originally English.
Want to learn more? Let’s take a look at the multilingual history behind 3 of the Internet’s most common symbols.
Internet Symbols Around the World: The Hashtag (#)
Hashtags have taken over the Internet. That’s not a bad thing. Twitter would be all but useless without them. (Unfortunately, they’re also invading our speech. Surely I’m not the only one who dies a little inside everytime someone says “Hashtag” followed by something intended to be clever or snarky?)
But the# symbol hasn’t always been called a “hashtag,” and it’s much older than the Internet. The hashtag started out as an abbreviated of the Latin word for “pound,” libra pondo. Prior to Twitter, Americans still called it a “pound sign.” Sometime between the 17th and 19th centuries, people got tired of writing “lb” for “pound” and starting writing # instead. So, it’s basically an abbreviation of an abbreviation.
In 1968, the hash sign was added to the push-button dialpad created by Bell Labs for the telephone. But for some reason, the people working at Bell Labs decided that terms like “pound sign”, “number sign” and “hash sign” were inadequate, so they rechristened it the “octothorpe.” According to the New Statesman, this may have been part of a juvenile plot to ““piss off” international users by inventing a name that is difficult to say in some languages.”
Fortunately, octothorpe didn’t quite catch on.
In the early days of the Internet, the symbol was used to designate specific chatrooms. And so, back in the social media Stone Ages of 2007, a Google employee named Chris Messina suggested using the symbol to designate specific groups or topics on conversation on Twitter. The powers that be at Twitter didn’t like the idea, but everyone else did, so here we are today.
And what is a hashtag called in other languages?
Most languages have chosen to borrow the English word hashtag, perhaps customizing it to suit local accents. For example, in Japanese it’s hasshu tagu. But at least officially, in French it’s mot-dièse, which means “sharp word,” referring to the similar-but-different sharp symbol used in music.
Internet Symbols Around the World: The “At” Sign @
And what about the @? When most of us see @ today, we think of email or perhaps Twitter. But the @ symbol has been in use for centuries. In fact, it’s been around for so long that linguists aren’t quite sure where it comes from.
It might have been business shorthand used to represent the words “each at” when pricing items for sale. Or, it could have been an abbreviation of the Latin word ad, which means “at.” Or possibly the Greek ανά, for “at the rate of.” Or maybe it came from the Norman French à, because people got tired of picking their hands up to make the accent mark. Hey, if you were a medieval scribe, you’d be looking for shortcuts, too!
Whatever its origins, it goes back at least as far as 16th century. The first known example that we have is from a letter from a Florentine merchant, where @ is used to discuss the price of wine.
That said, the @ symbol was fairly obscure until email took off the 1990s. The use of the @ sign as part of an email address was the brainchild of BBN Technologies’ Ray Tomlinson. And now, of course, it’s taken on a new life as a way to tag or reply to another user on social media networks like Twitter and Instagram.
The @ Sign Around the World
In English, @ is pronounced “at” or “at sign.” Interestingly, other languages have come up with much more poetic names for it. Here are some of my favorites:
Armenian: շնիկ (shnik), which translates to “puppy”. Belarusian: сьлімак (ślimak) which translates to “helix” or “snail Bosnian: Ludo a, which means “crazy A”. Danish: Snabel-a, or “elephant’s trunk A”. Greek: παπάκι (papaki), meaning “duckling”, Hebrew: שטרודל (shtrudel), or “strudel” Kazakh: айқұлақ, which means “moon’s ear.”
Internet Symbols Around the World: The Like Button
It’s hard to imagine the Internet without Facebook’s Like symbol, but where did it come from? Many people believe that the thumbs-up sign is another legacy from ancient Rome. The story goes that crowds at ancient gladitorial events could decide whether to spare losing combatants, or have the victorious gladiator finish them off. The crowd issued its verdict via two familiar hand gestures: thumbs up for life, thumbs down for death.
“Thumbs Up” Probably Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
It’s a pretty story, but it might not be true. And it’s actually based on a translation error. Juvenal used the Latin phrase pollice verso to describe the gesture in question. That was translated as “thumbs up,” but it actually just means “turned thumb.” And in his book Gestures,anthropologist Desmond Morris suggests that “what spectators in fact did was extend their thumbs for a kill and hide their thumbs for an acquittal. This made sense in an arena as vast as the Colosseum, where the kill and no-kill signals would have to be strongly contrasting to be visible at all.”
Regardless, the thumbs-up sign is now one of the most well-known online symbols, thanks to Facebook’s “Like” button. However, that white and blue thumb is not nearly as visible as it used to be. While you still see it on Facebook, the “Like” button embedded in other websites was redesigned in 2013. And the thumb didn’t make the cut.
Facebook claims the redesign was for aeshetic reasons, and that’s probably partially true. But the OneSky blog pointed out another reason that the thumb might have been replaced:
Apart from Facebook’s stated motives for the redesign, there are also some compelling reasons for a redesign from a localization perspective. As a general rule, a single gesture may have very different connotations in different cultures. And while the thumbs-up signal is common in the United States and many other countries, it may be seen as inappropriate in some places.
«Una de las grandes sorpresas que se lleva el principiante en sus primeras clases de inglés es comprobar cómo los anglohablantes ordenan las palabras de forma inversa a como lo hacemos en español. Llaman, por ejemplo, tap water al agua del grifo, y water tap al grifo del agua; exactamente al revés de como hacemos nosotros. El orden inglés invertido entró en español inicialmente, hará cosa de un siglo, en el nombre de entidades ligadas a deportes venidos de Inglaterra; tal es el caso del Fútbol Club Barcelona (cuando en español lo lógico hubiera sido «Club de Fútbol» en lugar de *Fútbol Club*), el Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (cuando en español lo lógico hubiera sido «Real Club de Fútbol de Madrid») y el Real Automóvil Club de España (cuando en español lo lógico hubiera sido «Real Club Automovilístico de España»). En la actualidad, no obstante, lo vemos ya en todos los ámbitos: Halcón Viajes, NH Hoteles, Tusquets Editores, Costa Cruceros, Aspirina comprimidos, etcétera.
La moda del orden sintáctico angloide ha llegado al punto de que en algunos casos es ya imposible intentar siquiera volver al orden lógico en español. En el campo de la terminología bioquímica, por ejemplo, ¿se atrevería alguien a seguir en español el orden sintáctico natural para los nombres de enzimas? Esto es, ¿osaría alguien llamar en nuestro idioma «deshidrogenasa del 6-fosfato de glucosa» a lo que todos los científicos de habla hispana llaman «glucosa-6-fosfato-deshidrogenasa», calcando el orden sintáctico del inglés glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase?
Algo parecido nos ha pasado con el calco ciencia ficción: está ya consagrado por el uso, desde luego, y aceptado por la Real Academia Española desde 1984. Pero eso no quita para que esté mal formado. El primero que tradujo así science fiction a nuestra lengua pasó por alto —por increíble que pueda parecer— el diferente orden que en inglés adoptan adjetivos y sustantivos, así como el hecho de que en las expresiones compuestas sea siempre el adjetivo quien califica al sustantivo, y no al revés. Por ello, nadie diría «una familia enferma» si lo que quiere expresar es «una enfermedad familiar». Todo científico estará seguramente de acuerdo en que la *ciencia ficción* no es ninguna rama de la ciencia, sino de la literatura de ficción. La traducción correcta no debería haber sido, pues, *ciencia ficción*, sino ficción científica o fantasía científica (fantascienza, de hecho, la llaman en italiano). Quizás incluso mejor aún narrativa futurista o novela futurista, puesto que el inglés fiction no se aplica a cualquier obra literaria de ficción (la poesía de ficción, por ejemplo, no se considera fiction), sino exclusivamente a la novela, la novela corta y el cuento; esto es, lo que en español habíamos venido llamando en nuestra tradición ‘narrativa’ o ‘novelística’. Difícil veo el empeño, en cualquier caso.»
La expresión anglófona lost in translation indica los matices del significado necesariamente perdidos en el paso de una lengua a otra.
Una traductora, escritora e ilustradora llamada Ella Frances Sanders tuvo la simple idea de catalogar algunas –las más enigmáticas, las más misteriosas y las más impredecibles– de aquellas expresiones, sin importar de qué lengua proceden y con la única condición de que sean lo suficientemente extrañas. El libro se llama así, Lost in Translation, originalmente fue publicado en 2014 pero recién acaba aparecer en la Argentina bajo el sello El Zorro Rojo. El libro afronta a su modo, que siempre es un poco improbable, cincuenta palabras intraducibles. La explicación de cada término se corresponde con la ilustración, y entre las dos se consigue comunicar lo intraducible. Esta simple tarea abre un importante interrogante acerca de los límites del lenguaje y el poder de las imágenes a la hora de superarlos. Ciertas palabras –no importa si son adjetivos, sustantivos o verbos–, al no tener un término correspondiente unívoco en otra lengua, hacen que la traducción se convierta en algo equivalente a trepar una montaña embarrada. Y la razón es, en la mayoría de los casos, que lo que la palabra designa no tiene equivalente.
Por ejemplo, ¿cómo explicar el significado del sustantivo sueco tretar y evitar la fosilización de la conversación sin llevar al interlocutor a la exasperación? Y sin embargo Sanders lo explica con simpatía, brevedad y resignación: es la tercera taza de café.
A un concepto puede incluso adjudicarse un juicio de valor distinto; al parecer, para los holandeses, comportarse como un avestruz, que entierra la cabeza en la arena (mito urbano de improbable comprobación, pero bueno, entendemos de qué estamos hablando) es una actitud reprobable (a mí, en cambio, me parece una reacción admirable y digna de imitar) y por lo tanto merece un nombre que la defina: struisvogelpolitiek, “política del avestruz”.
Muchas veces durante el proceso de traducción se pierde el sentido. Los japoneses, a diferencia de los occidentales, tienen en tan alta estima el hecho de tener la mente en blanco que le dieron un nombre a eso: boketto. Decir “tocino de la pena” no tiene el menor sentido, hasta que se nos explica que la palabra alemana kummerspeck alude a esas emociones que nos tragamos en grandes cantidades, como explica Sanders: “Desafortunadamente, estamos diseñados para encontrar consuelo en lo comestible y funciona, al menos hasta que un mes después pasamos por delante de una superficie reflectante”. La superficie reflectante es el espejo.
Las palabras son un conjunto de símbolos, símbolos convencionales cuyo significado real los atraviesa. Traducir no es una operación automática y banal, cada término trae consigo un patrimonio cultural repleto de las experiencias y de la historia de un pueblo. Se traducen sonidos, pero sobre todo se traducen conceptos. Casi todos, cuando esperamos a alguien que no llega, abandonamos la comodidad y el calor de nuestros sillones y salimos a la calle. Como hace frío –siempre hace frío cuando se espera–, volvemos a entrar, para que el ciclo vuelva a repetirse y volvamos a salir a la calle. ¿El tiempo pasará más rápido cuando nos movemos?, se pregunta Sanders. Probablemente así sea, pero lo que es indudable es que no hay espera que parezca más trágica que la de alguien saliendo de su iglú para echar una ojeada a la planicie blanca y fría, como hacen los esquimales cuando están ansiosos. En inuit se dice iktsuarpok. Recuérdenla, van a tener que usarla muy pronto.
El Dr. René G. Favaloro, médico argentino, fue el responsable de estandarizar y sistematizar la técnica de baipás aortocoronario (o cirugía de revascularización miocárdica) en la década de 1960. Poco tiempo después esta cirugía se convirtiría en una de las más practicadas en todo el mundo, ya que brindó la posibilidad a miles de pacientes con enfermedad coronaria (aterosclerosis) de prolongar la vida y mejorar su calidad.
El 9 de mayo de 2017 se cumplen 50 años desde la primera cirugía que implementó este procedimiento. El 9 de mayo de 1967, una mujer de 51 años se convirtió en la primera paciente de la historia en someterse a un baipás aortocoronario. Al frente de esta cirugía pionera que se realizó en la Cleveland Clinic de Ohio, Estados Unidos, estaba un argentino: el cardiocirujano René Favaloro. Cincuenta años más tarde, la técnica que revolucionó la cardiología mundial y salvó millones de vidas sigue vigente: sólo en la Fundación Favaloro (FF) se hicieron más de 13 mil baiáses en 25 años.
El término baipás es la forma adaptada al español de by-pass o bypass, y así aparece recogido en la vigesimotercera edición del Diccionario académico.
Baipás, plural baipases, es el resultado de la adaptación al castellano del inglés bypass, que significa, en el ámbito médico, ‘conducto alternativo por el que, mediante una operación quirúrgica, se desvía toda la corriente sanguínea o parte de ella para facilitar la circulación’.
Hashtags have taken over the Internet. That’s not a bad thing. Twitter would be all but useless without them. (Unfortunately, they’re also invading our speech. Surely I’m not the only one who dies a little inside everytime someone says “Hashtag” followed by something intended to be clever or snarky?)
And what about the @? When most of us see @ today, we think of email or perhaps Twitter. But the @ symbol has been in use for centuries. In fact, it’s been around for so long that linguists aren’t quite sure where it comes from.
It’s hard to imagine the Internet without Facebook’s Like symbol, but where did it come from? Many people believe that the thumbs-up sign is another legacy from ancient Rome. The story goes that crowds at ancient gladitorial events could decide whether to spare losing combatants, or have the victorious gladiator finish them off. The crowd issued its verdict via two familiar hand gestures: thumbs up for life, thumbs down for death.
La expresión anglófona lost in translation indica los matices del significado necesariamente perdidos en el paso de una lengua a otra.
Muchas veces durante el proceso de traducción se pierde el sentido. Los japoneses, a diferencia de los occidentales, tienen en tan alta estima el hecho de tener la mente en blanco que le dieron un nombre a eso: boketto. Decir “tocino de la pena” no tiene el menor sentido, hasta que se nos explica que la palabra alemana kummerspeck alude a esas emociones que nos tragamos en grandes cantidades, como explica Sanders: “Desafortunadamente, estamos diseñados para encontrar consuelo en lo comestible y funciona, al menos hasta que un mes después pasamos por delante de una superficie reflectante”. La superficie reflectante es el espejo.
VML Traducciones 