Re: Neutral Spanish
I have the same problem with our elementary school's newsletter.
We have so many different spanish speaking nationalities, that i have to be as "neutral" as possible. Lots of spanish tv news watching.
Sometimes i get stuck on a word that i consciously know is a regional word, but have not found a "neutral" word for it. So I end up using something like the following-
Por favor no mande a su estudiante (to make it neutral) a la escuela con calsado que es un peligro para estos dias que especificamente son sandalias/chancletas/chanclas/sapatillas/etc.
When I have to send a voice message to all spanish speaking recipients, i don't say etc, i just name the 'titles' i know and leave it at that.
I have the 'opportunity' to translate everything (mostly everything) that is sent out to parents into spanish, with only 2 aides who help out with 2 articles a month for the newsletter. I do all the day to day mailing translations.
I wish I was getting paid. I am a parent volunteer for the past year and a half. For the moment it is something I have taken upon myself (with PTA and Principal's approval) to get all the information given out in english translated into spanish so our spanish speaking parents can also be informed.
I even had my September phone bill (cell phone is my only communication) go up by $50. Which had to come out of my pocket.
But getting back to the 'neutral' subject.....it's hard.
I just try to watch spanish news, call my mom, my bro (who then asks his friend who the asks his friend- think about the Transformers movie "You're my advisor, and who's this?' 'My advisor', ok, so I ask around for the 'best' translation to a word) and 2 friends who are from different spanish speaking countries.
Just my 2 cents!
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Dragona
"An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind"
Gandhi
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