Voices en Español

When Luis Clemens, editor of La Política, took a look at the web sites of the current candidates running for president of the United States, he was surprised to see how poorly translated some of their web sites were.

For example:

John Edward’s slogan in Spanish is “El Mañana comienza hoy.” What he wants to say is that a better future is in reach. In Spanish, an approximate translation of that idea would be “el mañana se decide hoy.”

On Hillary Clinton’s web site it says “la senadora Clinton ha introducido sus proyectos legislativos.” That is a literal translation of “has introduced her legislative projects,” but in Spanish it would be more accurate to say “ha presentado” since the Spanish verb introducir means “to insert” in Spanish.

On Barack Obama’s web site, it says “Esta campaña se trata de construir un tipo diferente de política,” which doesn’t sound right in Spanish. It would be more natural to say “esta compaña trata de fomentar una política diferente.”

Check out Luis Clemen’s blog, Platicando. To listen to an interview with Luis where he talks in detail about these gaffes, click here.