Mind the gap
November 17th, 2005 by e-man
Besides having to read a substantial amount of books in Spanish, finishing a website I've been working on, going to class and writing several papers, I'm also working on my thesis which involves translating articles, written in Spanish by my promotor, into English.
What's immediately obvious after translating the first few pages is just how different both languages are with regards to conciseness.
It's no wonder English is dominating every field where formulating ideas is of paramount importance: very few languages can convey such a wealth of information with so few words.
The best example I've yet come across is the message you hear in several subway stations warning you about the gap between the train and the station.
In Spanish this is:
Atención, estación en curva.
Al salir, tengan cuidado para no introducir el pie entre coche y andén.
Which in English amounts to:
Mind the gap.
So clear, so precise, you just got to love it.
November 25th, 2005 at {entry_date format="%g:%i %a"}
This reminds me of a very effective “warning” I got when I was taking the subway in NY some years back. I was standing a bit too close to the tracks and the driver of the train pulling in just yelled out the window:
“Watch the f*ck out!”
Needless to say, I did.