Lenox

The Junta de Andalucía has created a webpage for tourism at www.andalucia.org. They got Telefonica to make up the page and handed over the not inconsiderable sum of 5,400,000 euros for the pleasure - about a BILLION PESETAS!
Yes, I know, anyone on this forum could do a similar job for less!
The page is in several languages, including, inevitably, Engrish:
'There are still very few who, in a illustrated and planned form, come to Andalucia to enjoy the flamenco tourism. It is our intention that those who wish to know flamenco in Andalucia by tourism, find in this site, ordered and varied references that help you know by a incipient form, of the great cultural and festive treasure, that flamenco supposes'.
When we have half a million Brits floating around in Andalucía, why must the Spanish insist on employing some cousin who once spent a few weeks in Coventry, making a fool of themselves with their peerless bigotry?

lynnxa

I don't think they even go that far - more like a googletranslate/babelfish attempt


& I don't think it's bigotry either - I reckon they just want to save money

cricketman

Because to translate officially for the Junta de Andalucia you need to have a degree in translation or be a sworn translator between Spanish and English. How many Brits in Spain have that?

Be careful of your own bigotry before you accuse others of it

Btw I agree the translation isnt so good, they have done what many translators do which is translate the long winded Spanish sentences directly into English. It is much better to break the sentence down into shorter ones, as this sounds much better in English, but is much more work!

Lenox

In Spain, it's always about the 'degrees' (and the notoriety) rather than the competence. Which is why homologación is such a dirty word. But, aside from the five and a half million euros (me and a blogger account would do it - as a favour, you understand - for a fraction less), there's the age-old Spanish thing of taking the tourist dollar while attempting at the same time to 'take' the tourist.
We have an official sign in every business in Almería from the business bureau AXEMPAL which says 'This establishement (sic) has Complaining Sheets at the disposition of each client who so requests it'. It's been there since - at least - the late sixties.
It comes down to spending pubic money on something worthless (c'mon - 5.4 million euros?) and then making a hash of it and causing derision - rather than respect.

steviedeluxe

It does seem an extravagant amount to spend on a website (maybe the potential market for IT people in Spain is far bigger than we thought!), and yes, you would have thought they would have got a native speaker to translate into the relevant language - it's hard to believe, but it's possible that a Brit did do the translation but lazily used Google translate.
But, it's not a "web-page" that could be done in blogger. It's actually a portal, and if you click on the web map you'll see a 100 or more different links. Looking at the webpage code it looks like it's been written in Django/Python (wait until some web purist here clicks onto the fact they use "tables"). Interesting too that a Nielsen analytics script is in there too. I suspect they've combined web developers from major consultancies with content people based within the tourist office, which may account for the large sum of money invested. I personally think 350-400,000 would have been an achievable budget, but I can understand why many here would still think that was ott.

agoreira

Agree, and not only in Spain. Unfortunately having a degree doesn't ensure they'll do a good job. We've all seen awful translations done by "qualified translators", give me a time served translator and it wouldn't matter to me whether he had a degree or not. We had a teacher in an Advanced Spanish class once, complete with degrees, and a total waste of time. With experience, she might be OK, but just armed with degrees and no experience, a complete waste of time. I asked a question once in a translation forum, and was surprised when the translator himself, Alejandro Pareja, answered my question. We went on to exchange many e-mails, a really interesting man. These are some of the 200 odd books he has translated, he is what I call a translator!
http://www.telefonica.net/web2/aprgh...aducciones.htm

Rotor

That was not translated by an official translater ,my 9 year old could do just as well, I know two translators both approved by the courts/Junta who would be very ashamed of that mess , and they are Brits, the price stinks of corruption , no surprise there, it`s no wonder Spain`s economy is going down the pan when incompetent crooks are given the power to spend that much on a web site.

EsuriJohn

Does not engaging Telefonica for anything to do with English suggest that they are not "up to speed". Any quick search through this site for Telefonica would show they just don't understand us/it!

steviedeluxe

For once I agree totally! True in many other vocations too - certainly the case in computing. Didn't Bill Gates even drop out of Harvard to start his own computing company?

Incidentally, it's quite likely that the website owners will be monitoring traffic, and may well look at this (British Expats) site if they see a lot of posters clicking on links. So it may be an idea for anyone posting here to make sure your comments don't break any slander or other laws

cricketman

They wouldnt use an English person to translate because firstly very few English people in Spain even speak Spanish, and secondly an even smaller number have qualifications that enable them to translate.

But I do agree that English translations in Spain are very often awful, but the answer is not to use English people unless they get the required skills!

Btw, the website link wont work for me

All this about Spanish people not hiring the British is bigotted nonsense. I've had no problems in that respect and know loads of other foreigners who are employed by Spanish companies or even work in local schools etc.

jackytoo

Just because the British you know don't speak spanish don't assume there are only a few who do. There are hundreds of Anglo-Spanish families, some even third generation. It is well known that a foreigner will not be employed if a spaniard can do the job....even badly!

The junta is all run on nepotism that is why everything they do is inferior. All the spanish know it and say so why cannot you accept this. Nearly all spanish websites aren't user friendly.

Rotor

I cant argue with any of that ,this is why Spain is such a bloody mess both economicaly and polictaly.

steviedeluxe

Yet their companies can do better in the UK (Zara, Santander even Ferrovial) than the British equivalents, only a few decades on from the old dictatorial times! Doesn't say much for the UK

cricketman

Just because someone is dual nationality doesnt make them a good translator.
And God knows how I ever get any employment in Spain!

Re, the junta I know they waste tons of money and are rubbish and inefficient, but I dont accept this "Spanish wont hire the British" argument

And yes Britain is just as messed up as Spain economically - and socially even more so!

steviedeluxe

which is presumably why Real Madrid and Barcelona rarely spend money on big-name foreign players??? Not!!