Book translation rate by languages

Informer   Sun Jun 27, 2010 12:00 pm GMT
Languages where books are translated into:
1. German
2. Spanish
3. French
4. Japanese
5. English

Languages where books are translated from:
1. English
2. French
3. German
4. Italian
5. Russian

Data taken from Top 10 of Everything 2010.
question   Sun Jun 27, 2010 2:13 pm GMT
wowoow

don't Spanish speaking countries have any writers??? They are a bunch of peasants and unumployed people....
+++   Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:06 pm GMT
Certaines cultures ont peu à offrir et beaucoup à demander (Espagnol, Japonais).
D'autres ont plus à offrir qu'à demander (Italien, Russe).

Très logiquement, les trois cultures dominantes sont présentes en tête de l'offre comme de la demande : Anglais, Français, Allemand.
eu   Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:14 pm GMT
Français,

culture dominante?

tu n'es plus dans la première moitié du 19 siècle. La France a perdu son empire et sa grandeur depuis longtemps!
Baldewin   Sun Jun 27, 2010 7:20 pm GMT
French is only a useful language if you're interested in foreign aid.
Baldewin   Sun Jun 27, 2010 8:27 pm GMT
Also as a cultural language it's interesting, but sorry, not on par with English. Outside of Europe (actually also within most Germanic countries) they won't understand French (unless you meet a francophile). Potentially, Spanish is the only IE language that can compete with English in the future, but I doubt that as well. I think English will remain dominant for at least hundred years.
Well, inside Flanders French remains somewhat popular (but far below English, very still). Throughout Europe immigrants from former French colonies like to speak French. Moroccans for instance associate French as their link to the Western world, also Flemish Moroccans have this enthusiasm about French even when they don't speak it that well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0O8kXrux86M
balts   Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:34 pm GMT
I'm surprised at the statistics. I would expect Russian to be in the top list too... Everything there is is translated into Russian, and very well too!
Thanks.   Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:37 pm GMT
Can you please link us to the data?
.   Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:41 pm GMT
Maybe what they say about the Dutch is true. Baldewin seems to revere the Spanish more than his own people, strangely.
y0k0 0n0   Sun Jun 27, 2010 10:47 pm GMT
We've been over this already.

1) English
2) French/German
3) Italian/Spanish
4) Russian
5) Japanese/Arabic

This is not to say that, say, Russian is in any form worse than, say, German, but considering the difficulty of both languages, along with overall cultural and academic output, German wins.
Baldewin   Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:28 am GMT
Spanish is only a useful language if you're interested in beauty pageant.
Baldewin   Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:34 am GMT
Also as a telenovela language it's interesting, but sorry, not on par with English and French. Outside of Castilia (actually also within most Hispanic America) they won't understand Spanish (unless you meet a hispanophile). Potentially, French is the only IE language that is on par with English in, and there's doubt about it. I think English and French will remain dominant for at least hundred years.

Well, inside Paraguay Spanish remains somewhat popular (but far below Portuguese, very still). Throughout the US immigrants from former Spanish colonies like to speak Spanish. Cubans for instance associate Spanish as their link to the Western world, also Quechuans have this enthusiasm about Spanish even when they don't speak it that well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aL0xUvZAixg
Franco   Mon Jun 28, 2010 12:42 am GMT
<<Spanish. Cubans for instance associate Spanish as their link to the Western world.
>>

In Catalonia we also associate Spanish as our link to the Western World.
crunch   Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:07 am GMT
Another interesting thing to do would be to analyse quality of translations. It's a well-known fact that translators translating into English, French and German are the best. On the other hand, people translating into Spanish and other such languages with a smaller pool of intellectuals are renown for their lack of skill, especially when translating from a non-English language. An acquaintance of mine who knows English, Spanish and Japanese told me that the English translation of a Japanese book was much, much better than the Spanish one. He said the Spanish translator pretty much just made up stuff whenever he didn't understand, which was about every other page.
crunch   Mon Jun 28, 2010 2:45 am GMT
In fact, in many cases when translating from a non-English language into a language like Spanish they have to use double translations. That is, for example, when translating a Japanese original, the Spanish translator translates an English translation directly, or at least extensively relies on it, because his Japanese is so bad. It's really quite loathsome how bad they are.