Editor’s Note
An earlier version of this story appeared at Clemenseando.
Amusing malaprops and glaring grammatical mistakes mar the Spanish-language websites of the Democratic presidential candidates.
Hector Orci, chairman of Hispanic marketing agency La Agencia de Orci & Asociados, derides the websites as “not particularly interesting, nor effective, nor well-written …If they were doing as bad a job in English as they are doing in Spanish none of [the candidates] would get elected with the exception of Bill Richardson.”
Except that even Governor Richardson’s Spanish-language website has its share of embarrassing errors. In fairness, the fixed portion of the site contains a welcome video in the Governor’s flawless Spanish and topical information of relevance to Hispanic voters. However, the campaign blog en español is a linguistic morass.
Spanish is obviously the second language of the campaign´s Spanish-language blogger whose very first post includes the phrase “Bill Richardson está corriendo porque el próximo presidente.” In Spanish, unlike English, you cannot write a candidate is ´running´ for office. Yet, the writer opted for the literal translation of ´running´ as ´ corriendo´. The second sentence of the second post manages to misspell five words. The third post includes a videotaped testimonial by Rep. Ben Lujan, speaker of the New Mexico House of Representatives, who praises the Governor for “dando relief en los tax issues”.
At a total of 174 words, the flimsiest Spanish-language effort belongs to John Edwards. The section is headlined “El Mañana Comienza Hoy“, which is a literal translation that literally means nothing.
The opening line at “Bienvenido a BarackObam.com” is another grammatical train wreck “Esta campaña se trata de construir un tipo diferente de política y eso comienza contigo.” Translated, that reads “This campaign is trying to construct a different type of guy of politics and that commences with you.”
“If you have a Spanish-language website and it is really bad then what kind of message does that send” asks Lee Vann the co-founder and president of the Hispanic interactive agency Captura Group.
Senator Christopher Dodd has added a Spanish-language section to his website since I first drafted this piece. But, it doesn’t look like a copy editor has finished reviewing all the text.
No podemos lograr esto con líderes tímidos buscando su dirección en los POLLS.
“POLLS” was obviously not translated to encuestas. And the sentence as a whole currently reads “We cannot achieve this with timid leaders looking for their address in the POLLS.”
The grammatical errors contrast sharply with the video on the website where the Senator communicates in fluent Spanish the importance of his time as a Peace Corps volunteer in the Dominican Republic.
Senator Clinton does not speak Spanish but the EN ESPAÑOL section is immediately visible on her home page. Once there, visitors learn about how Senator Clinton has “introducido proyectos legislativos“. Yikes, introducir means insert rather than introduce legislation.
Governor Mitt Romney is the only Republican candidate currently providing online information in Spanish. Craig Romney, son of Mitt, appears in a brief video clip where in mildly-accented Spanish he describes his father as a man of faith and integrity. It is a straightforward pitch that might well resonate with socially conservative Hispanics.
Vann says he tells prospective clients who are considering a Spanish-language website “either do it right or don’t do it at all.”
Here is a video of Senator Dodd speaking in Spanish about his time as a Peace Corps volunteer
electionTags: Election, Hispanic, Latino, Political communication, Spanish
October 22, 2007 at 6:17 pm |
[...] of the interview either at the campaign’s website or its Spanish-language section (which is marred by poor Spanish-language grammar). So here goes some transcribed excerpts of the interview with La [...]
November 6, 2007 at 10:25 am |
Entiendo la necesidad de manejar (en este caso no es sinónimo de ‘drive’) el idioma español de la manera mas appropiada posible –incluyendo las tildes–, pero tampoco debe llevarnos a un purismo digno de Garcilazo de la Vega. Por ejemplo: Introducir no significa sólo ‘insertar’; como tampoco ‘tipo’ unicamente ‘guy’.
Cordialmente,
Jorge E.
November 6, 2007 at 1:56 pm |
Not bad, one question though, did he learn Spanish in Argentina or with Argentineans, he has a slightly accent from that country.
Now, we can’t demand English speakers to be 100% proficient in Spanish, let’s cut them some slack, at least they’re making an effort to come across as friendly towards the latino community. I am certainly glad most of these candidates are using novel methods to reach us out but please, unless they spend six or more months in an full-inmersion program somewhere in Central or South America, we cannot expect them to achieve a native level, it cracks me up some of the spelling or grammatical errors I see but as long as I am able to understand or figure out what their platforms are, then I am ok with it.
Chau.
November 6, 2007 at 3:19 pm |
Spanish, like English, is not spoken the same way every were. I was born in Argentina and came to the US with 37 years. Some times I had hard time understanding guys from Mejico or El Salvador, and we all were speaking “Spanish”. I am not that good at English, but I know for a fact that some American people have rough time the first couple of days understanding the locals in places like New Zealand or South Africa, and all speak “English”.
The way that this candidates express them selves can be understood for the mayority of the Spanish speaking people IF they know what the politician are talking about, as Manuel before me said.
I hope it helps,
Fernando
November 6, 2007 at 10:23 pm |
Thank you, thank you, THANK YOU for pointing out the embarrassing level of Spanish that candidates tolerate on their web sites. I don’t think that it will drive many voters away, but when meaning gets lost in a tangle of English-influenced vocabulary and syntax, it can’t possibly do any good for a campaign. When a campaign organization spends millions of dollars researching voters’ attitudes and then crafting and communicating a message in English, how much sense does it make to pay a less-than-fluent Spanish speaker to butcher that message on the Web? No, we don’t have to write the language as Garcilaso de la Vega did (but then again, who would ever write in such a style in the US in the 21st century?), but if the Latino vote is important as candidates believe it is, their campaigns must attempt to make a better effort to communicate clearly with Spanish-speaking voters.