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Showing posts with label wine labels. Show all posts
Showing posts with label wine labels. Show all posts

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Translation and Pronunciation

Translation
I told a friend from Venezuela that I was having trouble translating Spanish using Google which did not match what I was told on DuoLingo. He suggested try
bing.com/translation

Translation
I was sent an emailed press release by the Polka gallery in Paris about their forthcoming exhibition in May-July. I wrote back a brief email asking them to ask their web designer or translator to add a translate button. What was the French phrase word for web designer? I used Google and got conceptual de site web. I reverse translated it back to English. I got website. So far so good. Then I did an internet search to see if my translation bought up the required suggestions.

Later, when I went back to my emails, I found they had sent me a translation into English. Here it is:
http://www.polkagalerie.com/en/exposition-fratelli-d-italia.htm

Label on a bottle of Wine 

Wine Names Spanish and Catalan
Meanwhile, along the way around the internet seeking translations, I was looking for the pronunciation of a Spanish wine bottle with the winery name Freixenet. I started hunting for Catalan and Spanish.

I like websites which give you buttons so you can hear. I find the pronunciation explanations confusing, The Wikipedia page surprisingly had no sound buttons for Catalan. I found debates and explanations of the origins of place names such as Texas and changes in spelling in Spain through the history. I am still looking for simple guides to pronunciation of wine bottle label names and wineries and grapes and terms.
http://www.pronunciationguide.info/Spanish.html

Pronouncing Music Names Of Singers and Composers
Meanwhile I happened upon a handy translation of musical names such as the well known ones of Pavarotti and Carmina Burana and many more.
http://www.pronunciationguide.info/sounds/pavarotti.mp3

Oops - how do I add a button for translating to this site? I'm off researching.
First step, first stop:
http://support.jimdo.com/faq/how-to-add-google-translate-to-your-website/

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, researcher, author.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Wine label, Workplace and Language Flashcards - Read or Make Your Own

I am studying for level one of the WSET (Wine and Spirit Education Trust) exam and I've been creating a set of slides in Keynote (apple equivalent of Powerpoint or Mosaic) about wine and wine label/menu languages in French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese. I find learning from pages of vocabulary is tedious, whilst reading a wine bottle or chocolate label or clothes label is more interesting because you have a purpose and the word has an importance, telling you about quality, or safety.

The terms on wine labels make it easy to remember, but they are not quite same as the word in everyday language. It's easy to remember that vinho verde means literally green wine, but in context of wine this could mean white wine or young wine. Casa means house, but in the context of wine it could mean wine from a single vineyard, not blended wine.

I'd filled in a few Portuguese terms but needed more so I googled Portuguese wine terms. Up pops a site which has flashcards of Portuguese wine terms. The same page has links to other languages, (everything except French), Spanish, and Italian.

http://www.cram.com/flashcards/wine-portugal-glossary-of-label-terms-1889822

I then went back to the home page looking for French and German, the home page labelled Flashcards. Up pop pages of languages, everything you could think of, right the way from Afrikaans and Arabic down to Urdu, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish and Yoruba.

If you don't see what you want, you can create your own in any language, from a book, the internet, from signs you pass when travelling, or for example sitting on a bus or plane, talking to somebody from a foreign country or reading a menu in a restaurant.
cram.com is create and share online flashcards
http://www.cram.com/language

You can make flashcards for your phone to revise on the bus, and make flashcards for any subject, not just languages, but any subject you are studying, for exams, for holidays and travel, or a glossary of terms used at work, for example, computers, law enforcement, medicine, the military.

You could also print them off and use them for a Xmas quiz on Xmas and New Year greetings in foreign languages for a Xmas dinner or Xmas party.

http://www.cram.com/flashcards/create