I’m currently making a new video in Xtranormal – this time in Spanish. Here’s the script, with English translation:
¡Hola!
HiBuena día. ¿En qué puedo ayudarle?
Hello, How can I help you?Busco trabajo.
I’m looking for work.¿Qué tipo de trabajo?
What kind of work?Como payaso y cirujano de cerebro.
As a clown and brain surgeon.¿En serio? ¿Me está vacilando?
Really!? Are you pulling my leg?¡No, lo digo en serio!
No, I’m serious!¿Tiene Usted algun título y experiencia?
Do you have any qualifications and experience?¿Sí, por supuesto! Estudié medicina en Madrid, y tengo cerebro y zapatos muy grandes.
Yes, of course! I studied medicine in Madrid, I have a brain, and very large shoes.Bueno. ¿Cómo piensa combinar la bufonada y la cirugía?
Ok. How do you plan to combine clownery and surgery?Bueno, podría ayudar a la gente a relajarse antes de la cirugía con mi bufonada.
Well, I could help people to relax before surgery with my clowning.¡Buena idea! Lamentablemente no tenemos ofertas de empleo para la cirugía del cerebro en el momento.
Good idea! Unfortunately we don’t have any jobs for brain surgeons at the moment.¡Qué lástima! ¿Tienen ofertas de empleo para los payasos?
What a pity! Do you have any jobs for clowns?Lo siento, no tenemos. Pero ¿ha contempla la posibilidad de entrar en la política?
Sorry, we don’t, but have you considered going into politics?¿La política? Pero no tengo ningun experiencia.
Politics!? But I have no experience.¡No importa! Es como hacer el payaso, pero con menos de tortas de crema.
It doesn’t matter! It’s like clowning, but with fewer custard piesBueno. ¡Eso parece ideal! No me gusta las tortas de crema. ¿Quando puedo comencar?
Ok. That sounds ideal! I don’t like custard pies anyway. When can I start?Hay una elección en unos pocos meses.
There’s an election in a few months.Tal vez voy a intentarlo.
Maybe I’ll give it a try.¡Buena suerte!
Good luck!Muchas gracias.
Thanks a lot.¡Adíos!
Goodbye.¡Adíos!
Goodbye.
If you spot any errors or have suggestions for how to make this funnier or sillier, just let me know.
I make these videos mainly for fun, but the process of writing in other languages also helps me to improve my knowledge of them. Making them funny and/or silly makes the vocabulary and grammatical constructions more memorable for me.
It is now possible to up load audio to Xtranormal as well as using the text-to-speech facility, so I could use recordings in any language I know, and plan to do so.
[addendum] The video is now finished and available on YouTube. I’ve even worked out how to add speech bubbles and subtitles.
Some corrections (I’m a native speaker):
¡Qué lástima! ¿Tienen ofertas de empleo para los payasos? – “los” not needed.
Lo siento, no tenemos. Pero ¿ha contempla la posibilidad de entrar en la política? – ‘contemplado”, not “contempla”. “¿Ha considerado entrar en la politica?” sounds more natural.
¿La política? Pero no tengo ningun experiencia. – “ninguna”, not “ningun”
¡No importa! Es como hacer el payaso, pero con menos de tortas de crema. – “ser payaso”, not “hacer payaso”. “menos tortas”, not “menos de tortas”
Bueno. ¡Eso parece ideal! No me gusta las tortas de crema. ¿Quando puedo comencar? – “no me gustan” instead of “no me gusta”, “comensar”, not “comencar”.
This is probably just a typo, but your second line should start with “Buenos días”.
“Comencar” should be “comenzar”.
Quando should be cuando
I’m thrilled to have discovered the Omniglot website and your blog. Fascinating reading. I’ve been determined to learn German for a number of years and am still working on it. I speak French and have taken a year of college Russian, though I remember very little.
Thanks for the work you’ve done and sharing it with the public!
Judith (Reader in the Wilderness)
¿Comensar? ¡Qué vergüenza, John, “hablante nativo”! Comenzar. 🙂
“Adíos” should be “Adiós.” (The accent is on the “o,” not the “i”).
“¿Tiene Usted algun título y experiencia?” – “Algun” should be “algún”; there should be an accent over the “u.”
“…tengo cerebro y zapatos muy grandes.” I think I’d say “tengo un cerebro…”
“Lamentablemente…” I’d say “Desafortunadamente…” I’ve never heard “lamentablemente,” although it’s probably fine.
“hacer el payaso” should be “ser payaso,” without the “el” (and with hacer -> ser, as John pointed out).
¡Muchas gracias!
Do I need to put a ‘los’ before zapatos?
No. However, I think “un cerebro y zapatos muy grandes” is ambiguous, as it could mean either “a brain and very big shoes” or “a very big brain and shoes” (i.e. where both the brain and the shoes are very big). If you really wanted to resolve that ambiguity, you could instead say something like “Estudié medicina en Madrid, tengo un cerebro y tengo zapatos muy grandes.”
Some more corrections i’ve found:
“Neurocirujano”, not “cirujano de cerebro”.
I’d say “tengo un cerebro y unos zapatos muy grandes” or “tengo el cerebro y los zapatos muy grandes”.
As for clownery, I think bufonería would be a better translation, though it doesn’t sound too natural to me anyway, maybe I’d just say “el trabajo de payaso” or something like that.
“Podría ayudar a la gente a relajarse antes de la cirugía con mi bufonada” I’d say “con mis payasadas”.
“Cirugía del cerebro”, I’d say again “neurocirugía”.
Even though John A. said “hacer el payaso” is not correct it sounds perfectly well to me (at least in Spanish from Spain).
It should be “cuándo”, in the sentence “¿Cuándo puedo comenzar?”
“Hay elecciones” instead of “hay una elección”.
And I’d say “¡Quizás lo intento!”
I’m not sure if my corrections my sound strange to American speakers. Anyway, I have to say you did a good work, it’s really hard to translate from your own language to a language you study! 🙂