Comments on: Nontraditional meats showing up on Tico plates

By: Luis Diego Campos

Luis Diego Campos — Wed, 04 Jun 2014 23:01:00 +0000

You guys are making me hungry for pinto con natilla.. hmmmmmm

By: Ken Morris

Ken Morris — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 00:18:00 +0000

The problem with interpreting gallo pinto as “rice and beans” is that in fact “rice and beans” means that caribbean dish with coconut milk etc.–NOT gallo pinto.

I puzzled over this for years until I finally asked my bar manager: Why is the special some days only rice and beans when the special every other day comes with rice and beans plus something else, and the prices are the same? That got a laugh at the stupid gringo and the explanation that “rice and beans” actually means the caribbean dish. Plus, they gave me a free plate of it and I must admit it’s tasty.

Anyway, just joking and want to say that I appreciate your integrity as well as the difficulties you have in applying it. I suppose I would interpret rather than translate, though alert the reader that this is what I’m doing and maybe put the original Spanish in parentheses. It’s a tough issue though.

By: turbooperator

turbooperator — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 22:48:00 +0000

don’t forget the comino and salsa Lizano

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:49:00 +0000

Just FYI, another common expression for the slaughter of animals is “cosecha,” translated as “harvest (ex, we “harvest (cosecha) 5,000 chickens per week.”

The English “slaughter” would most easily translate to the Spanish “matar/masacre/ matanzar/ etc.” (kill / masacre / etc.) which you’ll rarely hear amongst farmers and ranchers, who either “sacrificar (sacrifice)” or “cosechar (harvest)” their livestock.

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:40:00 +0000

Why, of course. We even have that as a ready-made cut-and-paste explanation when the term comes up (That isn’t a bad idea, in fact).

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:38:00 +0000

Thanks for taking the time to respond Tim. But don’t you mean: “rice, beans, chile dulce, cebolla and the everpresent culantro?”

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:26:00 +0000

No problem, Andrew. I’m glad that John Dungan actually brought up this issue, as it is one we are faced with daily.

90% of interviews are conducted in Spanish, and we must decide between translation, interpretation, or a mix of the two.

On a very basic level, for readers who are not aware of the difference, we can take a very simple example: Gallo pinto (the popular rice and beans dish here) would be *translated* as “spotted rooster” but of course we elect to *interpret*, rather than *translate* that phrase into “rice and beans.”

That is a basic example, and the decision there is easy. However, when interviewing a business person, or a witness to a crime, amongst other scenarios, we constantly struggle with the “interpret or translate” issue. We usually end up doing a combination of the two – but at the end of the day our priority is always to do our best to express the *meaning* behind a person’s words as best as possible.

Hope this makes sense, and puts quotes in future articles a bit more in context.

Thank you for reading ICR.

By: Andrew

Andrew — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:10:00 +0000

Thanks for the explanation, Tim. Helpful.

By: Timothy Williams

Timothy Williams — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 21:04:00 +0000

We try to adhere to the actual Spanish that is spoken when we translate a quote from someone who originally gave the quote in Spanish; which in that particular case translated to ‘sacrifice’ rather than slaughter (‘sacrifice’ is usually the term used, in fact). It is quite common here (“Nos sacrificamos 120 corderos al semana”).

Of course, we always run a thin line in the way we translate quotes from Spanish to English; these are debates we have quite often internally (translation versus interpretation).

By: John Dungan

John Dungan — Tue, 22 Apr 2014 20:54:00 +0000

Ganadera El Volcán S.A. is sacrificing lambs, huh? Do they use a stone altar, or is wood adequate for their needs do you suppose? (Sorry, but that just struck me as a curious choice of words).