It’s easy to mix up these words and phrases, given the many varieties of Spanish that exist!

Read Quote of Natalia Romano’s answer to Spanish (language): What are some interesting facts about the Spanish language? on Quora Read Quote of Juan Andrés’ answer to Spanish (language): What are some interesting facts about the Spanish language? on Quora

Fleex is a new program for Windows that helps you learn English. Once you download the program, simply drag a video onto the screen and Fleex will automatically find subtitles for the video.

You can learn English by watching the video in English and having subtitles in your native language, but then a question arises: what if you want to learn how to read and write English as well? Fleex has you covered, because they have a feature known as dual subtitles, in which easier sentences are displayed in English, and harder sentences (whose vocab you don’t know yet) is displayed in your native language. This is a novel approach to language learning that allows you to adjust the difficulty.

If you’re still stuck, pausing a video will allow you to click on the subtitles and view translations of each word. Fleex’s video is a good introduction:

Learning a language from TV shows is more entertaining than memorizing vocabulary words. Fleex’s founder explains how he had this epiphany (in the shower no less):

I was introduced to American TV shows by my younger sister. One of her friends had lent her the first season of ‘Lost’, and she insisted that I had to watch it. A couple days later I was addicted, spending entire nights watching episode after episode. It didn’t take long before I started taking on other shows. The quality of American productions is unmatched. In less than 2 decades, TV shows have become super productions with budgets in the millions of dollars. Networks finance dozens of new pilots every year, keeping only the most successful. I got so addicted to TV shows I had to have them as soon as they got out. The only solution at the time was to download them, but that meant no subtitles – waiting the couple of days it took fansubbers to make them was not an option.

I learnt so much with TV shows, you’d be amazed. Tons of words. Expressions. Idioms. Every week came another episode, reminding me of what I might have forgotten and introducing new things. The best part is, I wasn’t even noticing how much progress I was making – I was having so much fun. Not all learning has to be painful. Slowly, my ear was getting accustomed to the accent, and my oral skills were increasing dramatically. Bits of English were flowing in, attached to memorable images and emotions that made them really sticky. Weekly episodes meant regular practice. Cherry on the cake, I was learning tons of things about the American culture.

Fleex has promised support for learning languages other than English in the future. We can only hope!

Asymptote, an international journal dedicated to translations of literature and poetry, has announced a translation contest. Users may submit 5 to 10 pages of translated poetry or up to 25 pages of translated fiction. The winners will receive a $1000 prize. Read the full rules and details here.

Sometimes words with the same definitions have different meanings. This can be very confusing for non-native (and sometimes native) speakers of a language. They look up the words in the dictionary, and both of them have the same definition. However, choosing one over another can be a fatal mistake and it might completely transform the tone of the writing. Words often have implied meanings, and this is especially pronounced in the form of recommendation letters. In the United States, recommendation letters convey the best qualities of an employee. In translations, the compliments might seem so feeble that it leads to a case of being damned with faint praise.

The Masked Translator has a great piece on the subtleties of recommendation letters in translation. He gives 3 example sentences:

Ms. X performed her work adequately.

Sarah was satisfactory.

There were no obvious faults in Mr. Y’s work.

In other countries, these sentences would be genuine compliments, but in the United States, these words seem to imply that these people should not be hired. There are connotations in these words that are easily missed in translation.

Ms. X performed her work adequately.
The term “adequate” in English really means “barely sufficient.” It means that the bare minimum expectation may have been met, but absolutely no more. It connotes borderline inadequacy, and is not positive.

Sarah was satisfactory.
The term “satisfactory” suffers from the same problem: it is slightly negative in connotation in English (although perhaps slightly more positive than “adequate.”)

There were no obvious faults in Mr. Y’s work.
In some cultures, one focuses on faults and mistakes. In American culture, you focus on positives. In formulating this comment in this way (“no obvious faults”), an American might understand it to mean that there was nothing more positive to say and then perceive it has an exceedingly negative comment. The wording also implies that the writer fully expects Mr. York’s works to have had faults, but they simply haven’t been found (yet).

Be careful in the words you choose, and when translating, always try to have a native speaker check for these non obvious mistakes.