WARNING - Marred by poor translations
Accelastudys flashcard engine is customizable and provides several learning methods. This could be a great learning tool for those who like the flashcard style of learning, except that the comprehensive vocabulary list they provide is marred by poor translations.
The developers of this app obviously relied too much on machine translations. They needed a bilingual editor. In some cases, their translations are outright wrong, and in others, they get the wrong definition or meaning of a word that has several meanings in English. Other word choices are stilted, and do not really reflect the everyday speech of the Spanish speaking world. Here are some examples of bad translations:
1. Sweatshirt. Their translation: "el buzo". What that means: "the diver". What they really meant to say? "la sudadera" or "la camisa de entrenamiento".
2. Demonstration (business words section). Their translation: "la manifestación". What that means: "the protest [demonstration]". What they really meant to say (since this was the business words section): "la demostración" as in a product demonstration.
3. Spine (anatomical words section). Their translation: "la espina". What that means: "the thorn". What they really meant to say: "la espina dorsal". In medical terminology, "columna" forms many compounds in Spanish: columna lumbar, la cirugía de columna, las vértebras de la columna.
4. Simple (adjective). Their translation: "simple". Whats wrong with that? The way you say simple in everyday Spanish is "sencillo/sencilla" and "simple" is much less commonly used. It has a more limited meaning in Spanish ... without complications.
5. Balance (banking words section). Their translation: "el equilibrio". What that means: "the equilibrium". What they really meant to say: "el saldo".
6. Denim. Their translation: "la teel de jean". What that means: NOTHING. What they really meant to say: "la tela vaquera".
7. Suede. Their translation: "la seda". What that means: "the silk". What they meant to say: "el ante".
8. Purple (colors section). Their translation: "púrpura". This sounds affected in ordinary speech. In the Spanish vernacular, you say "morado". (Púrpura is used more in translations, like "El Color Púrpura" (Spielberg movie) and "Lluvia Púrpura" (the album/song by Prince).
9. Silly (adjective). Their translation: "estupido/estupida". Better translation: "tonto/tonta".
10. Sleepy. Their translation: "somnoliento/somnolienta". This does indeed mean "sleepy" but at a very high usage level. The everyday way to say you are sleepy is "tengo sueños" or "estoy cansado" (I am tired).
This company has produced a huge suite of language flashcard products. It makes you wonder how good their German/Spanish or Dutch/Spanish or French/Spanish products are when they cant even get English/Spanish right!
Howard9999 about Learn Spanish - AccelaStudy®, v1.9.0
