interpretating

Today I learned from one of the garden YouTubers I follow that the epazote plant (Dysphania ambrosioides), very popular in Latin America for its medicinal and culinary uses, is called paico in Chile. Found in most Latino grocery stores, the plant has a wide range of uses (during my childhood in Brazil, we used it internally for intestinal and respiratory issues, and as a poultice for skin problems).

Today, while helping with a NICU discharge and talking about how to warm up bottles, it occurred to me that I really like the expression baño maría. It's simple, straightforward, and commonly understood, allowing us (for a change) to use fewer words in Spanish to interpret a concept from English. Another expression I really appreciate is boca del estómago: when I interpreted it as epigastric the other day, the provider thought I was being fancy ("Look at you, Eduardo!"), and I had to explain to him that I had to do it because English doesn't have a more colloquial way to say it (maybe it does?). Iberian bragging apart, do you have any specific word, phrase, or expression that you find particularly cool? Share them with us!

Here's a useful thread on how to interpret physicians assistant in Spanish.

I just learned from my Chicana coworker a colloquial, lighthearted, humorous way to say someone had a tumble, comprar terreno, as in "Fulanito se resbaló en el hielo y compró terreno." And to think that I was about to congratulate Fulanito on his land purchase...

He says he lost about 70% of his income when the EU translation work dried up. Now, available work consists of polishing machine-generated translations, jobs he refuses “on principle” because they help train the software taking work away from human translators. When the edited text is fed back into the translation software, “it learns from your work.” “The more it learns, the more obsolete you become,” he said. “You’re essentially expected to dig your own professional grave.”

Today a Honduran patient taught me a new word for hoyuelo 'dimple': chocoyo, -ito. She said that's common in Honduras, while camanance is more common in Honduras. Not surprisingly, both are of Nahuatl origin.

She explained that the patient was befuddled when she and the PA mentioned that they'd have to take him back to exam his testicles. Seeing the patient's perplexed reaction, they tried to further clarify with the interpreter. "Balls! The patient said his balls hurt," the interpreter insisted. Noticing that something was askew, the nurse decided to let that interpreter go and call the interpretation line again. This time around, a new interpreter relayed the patient's complaint correctly, to everyone's relief.

At 12:16 the interpreter mistakenly interprets Spanish pretender (’to intend’) as English pretend, and almost derails the investigation.