Hi thanks for looking at my query. I recently as a joke changed some writing on the board of a friends EAL (English as an Additional Language) classroom from English to German. She liked the idea, but using Google Translate resulted in an overly formal phrasing that made it seem more a demand than a suggestion or polite request.
So my ask, if you speak (or I guess write) another language I would love to request you take a moment to translate “Please stack chairs at the end of the day” into whichever language you can help me with, it should be a polite request though.
I’m really not sure what the composition of her class is but she is a fan of languages as a whole so even if it’s not a language that is represented in her class I am sure it will be a bit of fun and a talking point to figure it out.
If you have the time and the skills to help I really appreciate it, otherwise I appreciate you taking the time to read this post. Have a fantastic day.
Portuguese: “Por favor empilhar as cadeiras ao final do dia”
Obrigado.
I’ve always wondered, if you know, how difficult is it to be clearly understood between Portuguese and Brazilian Portuguese?
I have family who speak with a strong enough Scottish accent that understanding is very difficult for some people, but also there are words they use that are just different than what people in other English speaking parts of the world use. Is it like that, or less, or more?
I would say it is very similar to what you said. Different accent and some different meanings of more colloquial words. There are some common European Portuguese slangs that have sexual meaning in Brazilian Portuguese, so some Portuguese ads have gone viral in Brazil.
Cool, thank you!
Por favor empilhar as cadeiras no fim do dia (passive voice) Por favor empilhe as cadeiras no fim do dia (imperative)
Portuguese
Obrigado
If Cyrillic is fine you can say in Ukrainian “Будь ласка складіть стільці наприкінці дня”. I’ll transliterate with polish spelling as it’s closest sounding language I know, not perfect but best I can do: “bud laska skladit stilci naprykici dnia”
дякую
I have been hoping for a few different alphabets, so Cyrillic is perfect, just means I will have to work hard to copy it correctly.
May I ask is that a direct translation?
Yes, literally says
please (будь ласка) stack (складіть) chairs (стільці) at the end (наприкінці) of the day (дня)
Ukrainian, like many slavic languages, has no articles and uses grammatical cases
Cool, I am finding this so fascinating. Thanks for helping and giving me a little window into a language I haven’t ever had a chance to examine.
🇰🇷 Korean: 일과를 마친 후 의자를 쌓아 주세요.
감사합니다
I am shamed to admit that after 5 years of Tae Kwon Do and Hapkido as a kid, all I remember is hana, dul, ses and dollida.
Italian: “Per favore, aiutateci ad impilare le sedie alla fine della giornata”
Direct translation aside from “aiutateci” which means “help us” to make it more of a friendly request than a command - the verb goes into the indefinite form so it’s not “aimed” at anyone. I think “lezione” (lesson) would work more naturally than “giornata” (day) as that usually means either sunset or when you go to bed
Grazie mille.
Thanks for the interpretation as well, makes perfect sense. I will certainly use this soon.
In Japanese I would say:
一日終わったら、椅子を重ねてください。
ありがとう
You answered 5 minutes before my sister in law. I am reasonably certain my friend has at least one Japanese student so I know this is one the class will be able to read.
I wrote this on the board but my form was not as good as it might have been, the students corrected the mistakes I made and left me the following note: オッケー、まかせろ
Would this be an appropriate response, or would it come across as incorrect, rude or condescending?
先生方、ご意見をいただきありがとうございます。
I am so sorry, I didn’t receive a notification of your answers. It’s late, but I’ll answer anyway ^^
Regarding your message to write them back, starting with
先生方seems wrong because you’re answering to students and先生means teacher.
生徒方is not something I have heard of, and it seems waaaay too strict to address to young people.Regarding the tone of their message, it’s very friendly and is “slangish” even. まかせろ instead of 任せてください。
If you want to answer in the same vibe, I would simply say:よろしくね＾＾or something along those lines.
For something more formal:ご協力ありがとうございますwould be good IMO.Note: I am not native Japanese, take my advice with a fistful of salt ^^
Ahh my friend, nothing to be sorry about at all. I am afraid I already replied. But they seemed to take it well. I’m not a teacher myself and wanted to imply they were teaching me but not sure if that was lost in translation.
Greek: Παρακαλώ στοιβαξτε της καρέκλες στο τέλος της ημέρας. And Albanian: Ju lutem vendosni karriget njëra mbi tjetrën në fund të ditës.
Σας ευχαριστώ
And
Faleminderit shumë
I really like that I am seeing common or similar words between languages.
Zde prosím odložte židle na konci dne 🇨🇿
The Ž is pronounced like the J in J’ai m’appelle
Děkuju
Luckily for all of us I won’t need to mangle the language by trying to speak it (I’m sure my accent and pronunciation would be awful).
But I am glad to know about that pronunciation, I know so little about your language it’s great to find out a little more.
Haha :-) Actually Czech is refreshingly straight-forward to pronounce – it’s a phonetic language, meaning that once you know what sound each letter makes, you literally just string them together!
I am a simple, brain addled, English as a first language speaker in a majority English speaking country. I am afraid I would need to actively seek to learn further languages and there never seems to be enough time or mental capacity. I have infinite respect for everyone than can learn more than one language, especially when the languages they know are widely divergent or don’t share the same language root. But I might have to give Czech a look and see if I can pick up a little pronunciation. Thanks again!
Hey, I randomly selected a language to go first and it ended up being Czech. I got a reply under my note: Ano! Yea! But I must admit I am reasonably certain it was a machine translation. I don’t believe there were any Czech speakers in the class.
My friend was SUPER excited by the new language and apparently it sparked a good conversation in her class, she couldn’t wait to see what’s next.
Thank you again!
Pleased to hear that!!
Danish: Stabel venligst stolene når dagen er omme
Literal translation: Stack please chairs when day is over
Tak
I am always fascinated by differences in sentence structure. Plus seeing the literal translatuon makes me think of the times I have talked with Danes who have found English sentence structure odd.
Hungarian: “A nap végén kérlek pakoljátok egymásra a székeket.” (Rough translation back to English: “At the end of the day, I ask you (informal) to stack the chairs on top of each other”).
Same thing, but more formal: “A nap végén kérjük pakolják egymásra a székeket.” (~English: “At the end of the day, we ask you (formatl) to stack the chairs on top of each other”).
In an even more formal / authoritative way: “A nap végén kéretik a székeket egymásra pakolni.” (back to English: “At the end of the day, chairs shall be stacked on top of each other”)
Köszönöm
It’s almost a suggestion more than a direct request so the first one sounds like what I will use. I really appreciate the context.
Bojlereladó!!
Hungarian: Kérlek szépen, pakoljátok egymásra a székeket a nap végén!
Note that the accents should be written perfectly vertically, not slanted
Köszönöm
If I am reading this correctly you have provided a more direct translation than Algernon did in another comment, is that like in English where the sentence structure is flexible enough for either version to read naturally, or in Hungarian is there a better way of expressing the sentiment?
Bojlereladó!! Sounds interesting? Could you explain it to a poor ignorant angol anyanyelvű?
like in English where the sentence structure is flexible enough
it’s more flexible actually
In mine ai say that the global theme is “stacking the chairs”, meanwhile they say that the topic is “at the end of the day”
Both are perfectly correct it just depends on what you want to emphasise
Cool, thank you for the clarification.
Bojlereladó!! Sounds interesting? Could you explain it to a poor ignorant angol anyanyelvű?
Randomly remembered that I forgot to answer this (my brain works in ways beyond everybody’s comprehension, especially mine)
Basically, you say “Bojlereladó” (lit.: “water boiler for sale”) when you meet fellow Hungarians online
Sure, why not! Thanks for getting back to me, again. Its little cultural things like this that I enjoy the most.
@shads@lemy.lol @asklemmy@lemmy.ml
Brazilian Portuguese: “Por gentileza, empilhe as cadeiras ao final do dia”.
If colloquial or more informal translations are desired:
- “Empilhar as cadeiras não faz cair a mão” (roughly “you won’t lose your hands if you take the time to stack the chairs”)
- “ô mossss, empilhascadêra fazenofavô?” (A very informal transcription from “Mineiro” (people from the state of Minas Gerais) accent for “Hey girl/boy, [can you] stack the chairs, doing [everyone] a favor [please]?”Muito obrigado.
I really like your informal suggestions, having some cultural context is awesome!
So I went with “ô mossss, empilhascadêra fazenofavô?” and my friend told me the Brazilian students in her class “lit up!” They were so happy that they wrote a response: “Pó dexa, cumpadi” and apparently recorded a video together talking about how they came across their dialect in an English class at a little school in Australia. Thank you for making a bunch of people smile this morning!
@shads@lemy.lol @asklemmy@lemmy.ml
LOL! It’s a funny thing from us Brazilians: whenever we see/hear mentions of either Brazil and/or unique national/regional Brazilian aspects, we tend to get this ecstatic feeling of “Brazil mentioned”. Glad you people enjoyed it! 😄
As an Australian, we are exactly the same.
The next language I am going to put up is a lot more obscure, Tokelauan, apparently there are only approximately 4000 speakers. There are certainly no students from Tokelau in the class, but I know my friend will be excited by such a rare language being used, hope that flows through to her students as well. Thanks again, can’t express how much your help is appreciated.
Cuir na cathaoireacha i gceann a chéile ar críoch an lá, le do thoil
(Irish)
Go raibh maith agat
(I hope that’s even a little correct)
I love it, my family is Scottish so if I were any sort of descendant I would know Scots Gaelic and I believe that sentence would look fairly familiar. Alas I am too slack to have learnt anything other than English.
You rock!
Hindi - कृपया दिन के अंत में कुर्सियों को इक्कठा करके रख दें। (Kripya din ke ant me kursiyon ko ikkattha krke rakh dein.)
Punjabi - ਕਿਰਪਾ ਕਰਕੇ ਦਿਨ ਦੇ ਅੰਤ ਵਿੱਚ ਕੁਰਸੀਆਂ ਨੂੰ ਕਠ੍ਹਾ ਕਰ ਦਿਓ। (Kirpa krke din de ant wich kursiyan nu kattha kar deo.)
Vocally, these two sound very similar, as if one is a different dialect, but are actually considered different languages. Also, I didn’t do exact translation, I used what someone would say when they mean this. Like instead of saying stacking, I am saying collect, bringing them together or something like that.
धन्यवाद
This is exactly what I was after. Thank you. Other than being patient and careful any hints for writing Hindi or Punjabi on a whiteboard? If I make small mistakes am I likely to offend anyone? I would rather like to use Devanagari and Gurmukhi (I think those are the correct names for the scripts) if I can mange it.
Umm… If you write दिन as दीन, it is supposed to sound different. First is din (shorter e sound), second one would be spoken as deen (llonger e sound). In some cases words could mean something else if these vowel sounds are different, but would not offend anyone. Same thing in Gurmukhi. Also, Punjabi can be written in Shahmukhi script (in which Urdu is written) which is actually the standard in Pakistan. In India, it is written in Gurumukhi only.
Wow, thanks I didn’t realise there were regional differences in the script. I’m not sure if there any Pakistani or Indian students in the class so maybe I should stick to the Hindi version so that no one feels overlooked. Between the Hindi, Japanese and Cantonese it looks like I will be getting a lot of practise reproducing script I can’t read before I give them a go. I think I have enough people who can proof read my practise and let me know if I am close enough. This is seeming like it will be a bigger commitment (and more fun) than I expected. Wish me luck.
