miércoles, 17 de diciembre de 2008

Un aporte de Gustavo Silva (Tremédica)

21 REASONS WHY THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

IS DIFFICULT TO LEARN:

1. The bandage was wound around the wound.

2. The farm was used to produce produce.

3. The dump was so full that it had to refuse more refuse.

4. We must polish the Polish furniture.

5. He could lead if he would get the lead out.

6. The soldier decided to desert his dessert in the desert.

7. Since there is no time like the present, he thought it was time to
present the present.

8. A bass was painted on the head of the bass drum.

9. When shot at, the dove dove into the bushes.

10. I did not object to the object.

11. The insurance was invalid for the invalid.

12. There was a row among the oarsmen about how to row.

13. They were too close to the door to close it.

14. The buck does funny things when the does are present.

15. A seamstress and a sewer fell down into a sewer line.

16. To help with planting, the farmer taught his sow to sow.

17. The wind was too strong to wind the sail.

18. After a number of injections, my jaw got number.

19. Upon seeing the tear in the painting, I shed a tear.

20. I had to subject the subject to a series of tests.

21. How can I intimate this to my most intimate friend?

Let's face it--English is a crazy language. There is no egg in eggplant nor
ham in hamburger; and neither apple nor pine in pineapple.

English muffins weren't invented in England nor French-Fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren't sweet, are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes we find that
quicksand works slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor is it a pig.

And why is it that writers write but fingers don't fing, grocers don't
groce and hammers don't ham?

If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn't the plural of booth beeth? One
goose, 2 geese. So... one moose, 2 meese? One index, 2 indices?

Doesn't it seem crazy that you can make amends but not one amend, that you
can comb through the annals of history but not a single annal?


If you have a bunch of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them,
what do you call it? If teachers taught, why didn't preachers praught? If a
vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

Sometimes I think that all the English speakers should be committed to an
asylum for the verbally insane. In what language do people recite at a play and
play ata recital?

Ship by truck and send cargo by ship? Let us drive on a parkway and park on
a driveway?

Have noses that run and feet that smell?

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a
wise guy are opposites?

You have to marvel at the unique lunacy of a language in which your house burns up as it burns down, in which you fill in a form by filling it out and in which an alarm goes off by going on.

English was invented by people, not computers, and it reflects the creativity of the human race (which, of course, isn't a race at all). That is why, when stars are out, they are visible, but when lights are out, they are invisible.

Pass this message on to everyone you know so that the gift of English can
be shared.

martes, 16 de diciembre de 2008

Artículo interesante

Excelente artículo publicado en EMOL de hoy.

A disfrutarlo:

Entrevista a Teun A. van Dijk:
"Chile no reconoce su racismo"

El destacado lingüista holandés y gran figura del análisis del discurso está de visita en Chile.

CONSTANZA ROJAS VALDÉS

Teun van Dijk paseaba ayer por un mall viñamarino, y vio que en la publicidad sólo aparecían niños rubios. Luego se sorprendió al encontrar pocos de ellos en la calle. "Latinoamérica y Chile no reconocen su racismo, pero es igual que en Europa y EE.UU.", explica. El lingüista holandés, uno de los precursores del análisis crítico del discurso (que al estudiarlo se centra en las desigualdades sociales), publicó el año pasado el libro "Racismo y discurso en América Latina", en el que aborda cómo el lenguaje que usamos reproduce implícitamente estas ideas discriminatorias. Según él, el discurso está cargado de expresiones y estereotipos que, sin darnos cuenta, fomentan una actitud racista. Van Dijk está de visita en Chile para dar mañana una clase cerrada en la U. de Chile y luego en la U. Católica de Valparaíso.

-¿Por qué en Latinoamérica se reconoce menos el racismo?

"Como las diferencias acá no son tan grandes, éste se niega. Las elites simbólicas, las que manejan el discurso público, no se reconocen como racistas porque se tiene la idea de una historia mestiza. Pero los grupos indígenas y los venidos de África sí notan su marginación".

Van Dijk señala que las principales estrategias del lenguaje para reproducir y ejecutar el racismo son el realce de los aspectos negativos del segmento marginado y de los positivos del propio grupo, y la preferencia por ciertos temas. "De los mapuches, por ejemplo, se habla de su folclore, de su cocina y artesanía, pero como si fueran un otro extraño. Y si se habla de sus derechos y tierras, se los describe como criminales o terroristas", explica el lingüista.

-¿Por qué este análisis debe ser considerado científico, y no tan sólo político?

"Es un análisis científico propio de la lingüística moderna. Estudia las metáforas, palabras y otros aspectos del discurso, y demuestra que hay una relación sistemática entre cómo se habla de forma más positiva de nosotros como grupo de apariencia europea, que sobre los demás".

-¿En qué puede ayudar el análisis del discurso contra el racismo?

"Primero, para hacer a la gente más consciente de que está presente, y segundo, porque muestra los efectos que tiene el propio discurso y cómo controlando la selección de temas y palabras puedes dejar de fomentarlo".


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Fotos Taller de Traducción en B. Aires

martes, 9 de diciembre de 2008

Taller de Traducción en Buenos Aires

Este 6 y 7 de diciembre participé en el Taller de Traducción Médica dictado por Fernando Navarro.

Fue una excelente experiencia conocer a nuestro máximo referente.

Todos quienes asistieron concordaron en el alto nivel de los temas y ejemplos tratados, lo ameno del taller y lo rápido que se pasaba el tiempo.

Felicitaciones a Aurora Humarán por la fabulosa organización del evento.

miércoles, 3 de diciembre de 2008

Un hilarante decálogo médico

Top Ten Reasons for Becoming an Anesthesiologist

10. You can intubate your friends at parties.

9. Have you ever met a happy internist?

8. You don't have enough ego hypertrophy to be a surgeon.

7. You can comfort anxious patients with, "I know just how you feel. It's my first anesthetic, too."

6. Any job where you can drive to work in green pajamas is a cool job.

5. You can park next to rich doctors like opthalmologists.

4. You can cover your mistakes with Versed.

3. After spending the night with surgeons, they still won't respect you in the morning.

2. If you get bored on the weekends, you can give yourself a spinal.

1. No office, no overhead, no rectal exams!!!

Frases graciosas

These are all GENUINE replies from patients asked why they needed an ambulance to and from hospital...

=> I am under the doctor and cannot breathe.
=> I can't walk to the bus stop and my wife is bent.
=> I can't breathe and haven't done so for many years.
=> I want transport as bus drivers do funny things to me and make me feel queer.
=> I am blind in one eye and my leg.
=> I live five miles from the hospital and the postman says I should have it.
=> I have got arthritis and heart failure in both feet and knees.
=> I must have a man as I cannot go out or do up my suspenders.
=> I cannot walk up a hill unless it is down and the hill to the hospital is up.
=> My husband is dead and will not bring me.
=> I cannot drive a car as I have not got one.
=> I hope you will send a man as my husband is quite useless.
=> I can come at any time to suit you, but not mornings as I don't feel too good. I can't come on Mondays or Wednesdays as the home help comes, and not on Fridays as the baker calls for his money. I can't come on Tuesdays as my sister calls.

Frases reales observadas en fichas médicas

Actual Notes on Medical Charts

1. She has no rigors or shaking chills , but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.

2. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.

3. On the second day the knee was better, and on the third day it disappeared.

4. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.

5. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.

6. Discharge status: Alive but without my permission.

7. Healthy appearing decrepit 69 year old male, mentally alert but forgetful.

8. The patient refused autopsy.

9. The patient has no previous history of suicides.

10. Patient has left white blood cells at another hospital.

11. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.

12. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.

13. She is numb from her toes down.

14. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.

15. The skin was moist and dry.

16. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.

17. Patient was alert and unresponsive.

18. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.

19. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life, until she got a divorce.

20. I saw your patient today, who is still under our car for physical therapy.

21. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.

22. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.

23. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.

24. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.

25. Skin: somewhat pale but present.

26. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.

27. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Blank, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree.

28. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.

29. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities.