Problems In Translating

1. Introduction.

2. What are the differences between Spanish politeness and British politeness?

* Spanish is more direct; we could be polite being direct. However, English uses an indirect style.
When greeting, men usually shake hands. In informal situations, women meeting men or other women will give a kiss on each cheek
Some English subtleties are not as widely used in Spanish andmay make the language sound brash at first.
For example, in a bar you might be asked:  ¿Qué quiere? Although it literally means What do you want? it lacks the brashness of its direct English translation and to Spanish ears it sounds as polite as What would you like?
You may also notice that “por favor” isn’t as widely used as please in English. Again, it’s down to subtlety and an economy ofwords.
For example, instead of adding extra words, you can just turn a request into a question and ask nicely:
 ¿Abres la ventana? (Can) you (please) open the window?
 ¿Abro la ventana? (Would you like me to) open the window?

* English people usually say “thank you”, “please” or “sorry” many more times than we do.

According to Brown and Levinson, positive and negative face existuniversally in human culture. But culture can be very different depending on which country or region people live in.
For example, in social interactions English speakers usually say more times “thank you”, “please” and “sorry” than Spanish people. It is due to the different culture, so English people use more times these expressions in order to avoid to threaten a person’s negative or positiveface. However, it is not considered as a threaten for Spanish speakers.
Besides, English has more different ways to say “thank you”, “please” or “sorry”, like “I would really appreciate if you…” (please), etc. Spanish also has too much different ways to say that, but we never use them, even in a formal conversation.

* Spanish has an especial pronoun to express politeness, “usted”.

InSpanish there are two ways to talk to a person (leaving the “royal we” aside). “Tú” is for a closer speaker, someone who you knows well (more or less) and does not mind to be addressed as “tú”. “Usted” is quite more polite, it is used for respected people: old people, teachers, business men…
In one hand, if you use the “tú” pronoun when talking to, for example, a well-known politician, it canconstitute a FTA: to the addressee because the social distance reduction between him and you (the speaker) may be unwelcome (he is part of a higher social class); and to the speaker because he could be rebuffed by non-reciprocal use by addressee. You have to use “usted”, because it creates and keeps the social distance existing between you and him.
In the other hand, if it is, for example, an employertalking to his employee, who initiates the change (from “usted” to “tú”), the employee could think that this is an attempt to exercise power.
This happens in French too: there are the forms “tu”, informal, and “vous”, formal.
In a translation from English to Spanish that is an important factor, but it is usually well managed by translators: they just have to translate it in a way they know theaudience will understand and they will feel identified to.

* English has some words cosidered “forbidden”.
There are plenty of jokes or chistes in Spanish covering politics, doctors, the police forces, the military or other nationalities. And when telling jokes, political correctness is generally less observed than in English.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/spanish/guide/facts.shtmltaboo words and swearwords

because taboo words are shocking, they are common in situations where people want to express powerful emotions by using “strong” language.
When people swear, taboo words usually change their meaning completely.
Linguistic taboos in English-speaking countries are less strong than they used to be.
It is not easy to know the exact strength of these expressions in a...