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Learning TechSpeak in a New Language?
dlthomas asks: "I'm a tech worker moving to a country where English is not the primary language. While I've found lots of resources for learning the language, I'm wondering what resources people know of for learning technical jargon (and any unique grammatical constructions) in languages other than English. I'm personally looking for Latin-American Spanish, but would still be interested in seeing broader discussion."
The KDE's Spanish Translation Team have done a very good job, take a look at their glossary: http://kurly.org/kde/glosario
The best way to predict the future is to invent it
red == network (or any old kind of net)
teclado = keyboard
ratón == mouse, but everybody I know says mouse.
tarjeta == card
disco duro == hard disk
programador == programmer
Many are obvious: Computadora, programa, cable.
Plain English ones:
hub, router, server, web, internet, dvd & cd (usually pronounced as the english letters!)
I'm sure I'll think of a bunch more right after I post this. One not really technical but odd: a VCR is (at least around here) a "vay achay" as in the spanish pronunciation of the letters V H. Similarly, a BMW is a bay emmay.
The best resource is people. Find some computer enthusiasts and talk to them in the language you're trying to learn. (Resist English!) You'll pick up the terminology just by being around it and being corrected when you use the wrong one.
Mod down posts with a "Free Mac Mini/iPod" sig, they're spam!
Si estas viniendo a Argentina no te hagas problemas, los terminos tecnicos en ingles los entendemos todos...
:)
Simplemente rodealos con las palabras en español apropiadas.
(for the Spanish Disabled)
If you're coming to Argentina don't worry, the technical jargon we all understand.
Just surround them with the proper spanish words
enjoy
NEOCA - Custom LED Flashlights
The country I now live in has a different language from my mother tongue, and it's not English :)
Just as with the 'normal' language, I learned all the tech terms by observing. After you get the basics of the language just read tech magazines or books, surf the local tech web sites, talk to computer nerds or listen to them talk. You can try visiting computer-related eshops which have pictures and just browse randomly, noticing the categories various things are listed under or descriptions given.
For example, if there is a picture of a memory module with the following description:
"ECC awoseihgna 266MHz pijsdae (aikjrst PC2100), sjlfdg 2GB."
It should be obvious that "awoseihgna" means registered, "pijsdae" means memory, "aikjrst" stands for standard or compatible, and "sjlfdg" is size or capacity. Note: sample words created by dropping hands on keyboard.
It (everything, not just the eshop thing) worked for me, and I think the talking/listening part is very important, as A) you will hear the pronunciation and B) many things have completely different 'official' and commonly used names, like box vs. computer in English but with 100:1 usage ratio.
Hope this helps.
http://barrapunto.com/
/. but not as active. Has contributors and posters from both Spain and Latin America.
A Linux/tech news and discussion site in Spanish built on Slashcode. Like
and to that point: a friend related to me how in icelandic "computer" is a compound word composed of the two words "number" and "prophet".... very interesting indeed!