Real cases

Two of the ideas you practise, meeting in one real situation. Choose, see what actually happens, then reflect.

A case · you decide

Literal and Idiom at the train station

Idiom & Literal — a 16-year-old translating a German exchange student's message

The idea in play: an idiom's literal picture is meaningless until you know what it stands for.

The message says: "Ich verstehe nur Bahnhof." Word for word: "I understand only train station."

Literal is faithful to every word, and the result is nonsense in English.

Idiom asks what the saying means: it is what German speakers say when something makes no sense to them.

What is the best English translation?

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A case · you decide

Boomerang and Drift catch a change of tone

Boomerang & Drift — a 17-year-old checking a message she translated into Spanish

The idea in play: a back-translation shows what changed — sometimes the meaning survives and the register drifts.

Luisa translated a casual text to her friend's grandmother, "Hey, can you give me a hand?", as "¿Podría usted ayudarme?" Back into English it reads "Could you help me?"

Boomerang sends the phrase back to see what returned.

Drift names what shifted: the meaning is the same, and the tone moved from friendly to formal.

Is the translation right?

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