Posts
Substitute Teacher's Quick Reference. (pdf file) [ed.: check out the final column]
Substitute Teacher's Survival Kit (pdf file)
Letter to the Family (pdf file)
Carta a la familia (pdf file)
Letter of Invitation to Attend Family/Teacher Conference (pdf file) [ed.: family/teacher? not parent? I'm calling that a demotion]
Spanish version (pdf file)
lost in translation
Querida familia,
Bienvenidos a ________________. Espero con ilusión un año exitoso en ________________. Para preparar a nuestros estudiantes para retos futuros en matemáticas, hemos elegido un programa que incluye un enfoque activo al aprendizaje de habilidades para resolver problemas.
Nuestro libro de texto, publicado por Prentice Hall, es un programa centrado en el estudiante. Su estilo lleva a los estudiantes al descubrimiento de ideas matemáticas. Luego, una vez que descubran esas ideas, comunican lo que han aprendido y aplican lo que saben. El programa les pide que resuelvan problemas individualmente y en equipos. Se enfoca a situaciones de la vida real para ayudar a los estudiantes a apreciar el poder de las matemáticas en su vida diaria.
Nuestra meta es formar una asociación con la familia y con miembros de la comunidad. Unidos podemos crear un ambiente de aprendizaje que realmente ayude a nuestros estudiantes. A lo largo de este año escolar, los invitaremos a ustedes a participar en eventos escolares y en proyectos del hogar y la escuela. Su hijo o hija llevará a la casa, periódicamente, actividades que ustedes compartirán y experimentarán juntos en familia.
Son bienvenidas todas las sugerencias o comentarios que quieran hacernos sobre nuestro programa. Si tienen preguntas sobre las actividades de su estudiante en la clase de matemáticas, les ruego que me dejen un recado a ________________. En su recado díganme cuál es la mejor hora para devolverles su llamada. Pueden también escribirme a ________________.
Me entusiasma la idea de trabajar con ustedes para lograr tener un año escolar satisfactorio y exitoso.
Atentamente,
______________________________________
This document poses a conundrum.
Given a choice, would you prefer:
- not having the first clue what school personnel are talking about because your district communicates with
parentsfamilies via form letters purchased from the publishers of your child's math curriculum - not having the first clue what school personnel are talking about because you don't speak English
update 5-29-2008, from the instructivist
The sugerencia I would give them is to shove it.
My thoughts exactly.
Teacher's Forms and Letters: the Complete Set
how to get parent buy-in
Everyday Math does it, too
I'm sorry, Bob and Mark
venomous
getting your math message out to parents
Carolyn on getting your math message out to parents
Math Trailblazers Parent Letters
Compare and Contrast
Education Jargon Generator
28 comments:
It's a letter home to parents/families describing fuzzy math. If you want, I can do a rough translation, but there may be people on here who are truly bilingual and can do a better one.
It may be a form letter from the publisher, but it gives a reasonable idea of what students will be doing in a fuzzy math program.
I think the family/teacher rather than parent/teacher conference comes about because students attend the conferences now (at least in schools around here.)
Oh, I can read it, alright!
And, yes, this is an official form letter written by the good folks at Prentice Hall.
I take back my offer to translate the letter. The letter is in English at the Letter to the Family link.
"Son bienvenidas todas las sugerencias o comentarios que quieran hacernos sobre nuestro programa."
The sugerencia I would give them is to shove it.
I can imagine a Mexican familia puzzling over all this prattle about problem-solving and child-centered. Wouldn't one solve problems in math as a matter of course? -- they might wonder. Can the familia be expected to know that the fuzzies claim a monopoly on solving problems? And what is this child-centered thing? What was instruction centered on before the fuzzies came along? A plant or rock? All this must be really confusing. The ideology hidden behind these phrases remains obscure to the uninitiated, whether translated or not.
I suspect parents became familia so as not to offend those unfortunate who have no parents.
I'd be annoyed with this right off the bat for addressing me so inimately. "Querida" is how I address my Grandma in a letter, not the parents of some students I've never met. "Estimada familia" would certainly be more appropriate and dare I say, more professional.
Ditto what Instructivist said about the rest of the letter.
"Centrado" is a false cognate. The literal translation from the English "centered" is a terrible translation.
The funny thing is that even if the translation were more accurate (enfocado en), it would still be a bunch of hogwash.
"Espero con ilusión un año exitoso..." (English original: I look forward to a successful year...)
There could be unintended humor here if you disregard faux amis. I believe the use of "ilusión" in this sense is more common in Spain.
A good translation doesn't translate words, it communicate meaning. This is an awful translation because it is a literal translation from the English original. It just screams "Rewrite me!"
However, I have to admit I would struggle with this one if it were mine to translate. Eduspeak doesn't lend itself to Spanish very well, I'm afraid.
Catherine. You made me do it. I was really trying not to read the Spanish. This kind of stuff really gets under my skin. A Spanish speaker would have to speak English very well to even have a clue what this is about. To make any sense of it, I have to figure out what they were trying to say in English and then imagine what they actually meant to say in Spanish. If the reader of this letter is non-English speaking, what's the point? It's a bunch of jibberish.
If I had to choose between the two, I'd rather have the letter come in English and not be able to read it. At least I'd know why I didn't understand it. It really stinks to read a bunch of words in a language you really do understand and still not have a clue what in the world these people are talking about.
My favorite just may be Nuestra meta es formar una asociación con la familia. It sounds like the teacher is proposing starting a business (asociación) with my family. Blech!
More badly translated buzzwords:
*enfoque activo al aprendizaje de habilidades para resolver problemas
*lleva a los estudiantes al descubrimiento
*proyectos del hogar y la escuela
When I get a botched translation like this and a client asks me to "fix it", I ask them for the original English copy. I then throw the Spanish copy away and start from scratch. It's much, much easier that way.
Last comment (for tonight)... I'm assuming the teacher or schools must send out this form letter because they cannot communicate with the "family" who only speaks Spanish. The letter encourages the family to leave a message or write to communicate any questions or concerns.
So, then what? Do they have another handy-dandy form letter that takes care of that too?
One advantage of a rather literal translation of edspeak is that it exposes the gobbledygook of the educationist thoughtworld. It's nearly impossible to provide a non-literal translation of something that has no substance and empirical referents.
As a semi-fluent Hispanic, it is both scary and snort-funny to read this eduspeak translated into Spanish. I’m having just about the same reaction to both versions – WTF?!! Or, que la effe?!!
Viva “la vida real”?
I've added an "update" to the post.
As a semi-fluent Hispanic, it is both scary and snort-funny to read this eduspeak translated into Spanish.
Spanish is my second language, and while I'm not fluent enough to pick up connotations, I feel EXACTLY the same way.
I feel as if they're horribly warping and distorting ANOTHER language with this cr**.
Estoy de acuerdo con la sugerencia.
I figured they're addressing letters to "family" because today they can't assume the kid lives with parents....
-m
I get the familia thing. What I don't get is the Querida familia thing. It just sets the wrong tone from the get-go.
ConcernedCTParent, I was replying to Catherine's comment in the main post about being demoted from "parent" to "family," not your phraseology comments. I'm guessing that "querida" is the same as "cher" in French?
As an aside, my impression of the connotation of "querida" was that even more than an affectionate endearment it was a romantic one (possibly from the Earlene Fowler quilt mystery novels?), so if I'd thought about it specifically I would have guessed at it being even more inappropriate.
(Though I would use "cher" to a family member as you gave in your example, if I had family members I wrote to in French....)
-m
....the connotation of "querida" was that even more than an affectionate endearment it was a romantic one..
That's the only way I've ever used it. But that's another story....
Actually, now that you mention it, I've always seen "querida" used in a romantic context...
Unlike Ben, however, I have no story to attach to this observation.
Wish I did.
Mark - I wonder if you're right about the "bypass" of parents?
Are there a lot of kids now who aren't living with either parent?
hmm
You're all correct!
Querida or Querido as a form of address without a title such as Abuela, Hermano or the name of a dear family member, spouse, girlfriend, etc. following it, is used to address a romantic partner.
Querida is not the equivalent of "Dear" unless you are addressing an intimate relation. In the case of business correspondence or a letter to someone you don't really know very well, Querida ____________, is inappropriate. As Mark noted, it would be used as the French Cher.
I'm not Mark, actually. Sorry for any confusion.
I should really just sign up for a Blogger account of my own already instead of always posting anon with an initial.
-m
re: nonparents: well, the Census Bureau says ~1.5% of households were "grandparent caregivers"
http://www.census.gov/prod/2003pubs/c2kbr-31.pdf
When I filled out private school admissions forms for my daughter, I think one school actually labeled the lines "Responsible Adult." Maybe "Guardian." Certainly not "Mother" and "Father."
-m (not Mark)
Oops, sorry m. (not Mark)
I think the family thing is pretty standard fare. You can't really make the assumption that parents are the primary caretakers anymore. When I do these types of translations I have to work with words that are non-specific as well. I commonly address docs to family (instead of Mom, Dad or Parents) and use child (instead of son or daughter). It's just easier to be all-encompassing sometimes and not make any assumptions either way.
Just to toss my comments into the ring. I'm Anglo, but live in a city where the school district population is 50-60% Hispanic.
By addressing la familia, I don't think they are trying to reach the students who live with non-parental guardians. I think, instead, that they are acknowledging the active role that the entire family -- tias/-os, hermanas/-os, abuelas/-os -- plays in a child's education. Plus, around here, many recent immigrants live in multi-generational family units.
My friend who is a former classroom teacher says that she observed that the recent immigrants put a high value on their children's education, and appreciate thw high quality that they are getting for free. (Don't laugh -- but compare with the education that a poor child would get in Mexico.) Also, in Mexico, teachers are held in a position of esteem.
Past about the first generation, though, they become Americanized enough to take the free education for granted.
As far as the querida thing goes, I googled "querida familia" and came up with about 80,000 hits, including a movie from Spain and a Portuguese website. Many of the top hits were Portuguese rather than Spanish. So, while it's not a totally unused phrase, my guess agrees with yours, that they just ran this through an automatic translation or gave it to a human who speaks/reads a Spanish that is other than idiomatic U.S. Spanish. (I started to write "American Spanish" there, but Spanish idioms vary across the North and South American continents, e.g. "huevos" is a perfectly acceptable menu item in Texas, but in some areas of the Americas, it carries a very different connotation.)
Absolutely. You better order blanquillos in some parts unless you want the wrong kind of attention.
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