Stories from Puerto Rico
 | Average Customer Rating: Recommend Dive into the tales of Puerto Rico--in Spanish and in English! In Stories from Spain/Historias de Puerto Rico, we've placed the Spanish and English stories side by side--lado a lado--so you can practice and improve your reading skills in your new language while enjoying the support of your native language. This way, you'll avoid the inconvenience of constantly having to look up unfamiliar words and expressions in a dictionary. Read as much as you can… Product details and pricing info |
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9 Customer Reviews Posted
- Great way to practice Spanish!
- I love this book. Not only do you have the comfort of English translations, but there is also a mini dictionary in the back of the book. It's great! I would definitely recommend it.
- 2008-10-24, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Wonderful book
- A treasure! I absolutely love this book about my parents' home. Anyone interested in history and legends should get this book.
- 2008-09-12, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Books for Young Students with Puerto Rican Heritage
- I bought this book for a student of mine with Puerto Rican heritage. He loved having Spanish on one side and English on the other. He was not an avid reader, but he loved this book so much that he read it in a week or so.
- 2008-08-17, 0 of 0 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Translation is too loose
- This is the second "Side-by-Side" book I have read.
I prefer the first, "Stories from Latin America,"
because the editors of that volume better understood
their purpose -- which is to present side-by-side versions
of the same story, such that a reader conversant in one
language but not the other, may learn new vocabulary, verify
verb tense, etc. If one looks at the back cover of "Stories
from Puerto Rico," one sees that it says there that "we've
placed the Spanish and English stories side by side -- lado a
lado -- so you can practice and improve your reading skills in your
new language while enjoying the support of your native language.
That way, you'll avoid the inconvenience of constantly having to
look up unfamiliar words and expressions in a dictionary."
Well, you had better have a dictionary handy if you plan to
learn from this book. I have been exasperated time and again by
English translations that are too loose to be useful. If one is
translating for the purpose of conveying the sense and spirit of
a story, then a precise word-for-word translation is unnecessary.
However, this book is designed for language students who are trying
to learn a foreign language. A precise translation is just what's
needed, and I think it's what was promised on that back cover. Yet,
this is not what the book delivers. Let me give an example. There
are many to choose from. This one appears on page 117. Here's the
Spanish version:
"No sabemos si existió, ni dónde, ni cuándo, pero sus desventuras
han hecho reír a generaciones de puertoriquenos. A continuación
encontrará una versión de una historia de Juan Bobo." [I've omitted
the diacritical mark on the "n" in puertoriquenos, but it's there in
the text.]
Now here's the English version of the same sentences:
"We don't know if he really existed, or where, or when, but his
misadventures have entertained generations of Puerto Ricans. The
following is one version of a story about Foolish Jack."
Here now is my problem with the English translation. First, the
word "entertained." The Spanish word translated is "reír." The
Spanish word means "to laugh." Why didn't the translator give us
the precise translation? The clause should read, "his adventures have made generations of
Puerto Ricans laugh." What's wrong with this more precise translation?
Had I not recognized that the Spanish verb is similar to the French
for "laugh" (which I know already), then I might not have bothered
to look the word up. I might have assumed that "reír" means "to
entertain." It does not. My second problem with the English translation
has to do with the last sentence. The Spanish verb "encontrará" is
simply not translated. As though that weren't bad enough, the tense
has been changed from future to present. As a person trying to learn
Spanish (that's why I bought this book), I want to know the meaning and
tense of "encontrará." The Spanish sentence should have been translated
as follows: "Following, you will find a version of one story about Juan
Bobo." Is that so hard? What did the translator think he was doing?
What did he think his purpose was?
This book still has value, and that's why I give it three stars. The
English translation helps convey the general sense of a sentence, and
that is usually enough to help the reader fill in the gaps. However,
a dictionary is still required -- especially since some of the Spanish
vocabulary in not included in the glossary.
A very sloppy job of editing. "Stories from Latin America" is better
done. - 2007-07-06, 2 of 2 people found this review helpful, Rated:
- Thank you
- This was a present for my friend whos is Puerto Rician he loved the book.
- 2007-01-12, 1 of 4 people found this review helpful, Rated:
