Cuculture Club

Good translators are not just simple linguists, versed in the art of choosing the correct verb, gender and syntax, necessary for the construction of a readable phrase in a foreign language. They must also be capable of restoring the same symbolic charge, and of creating the same emotional reaction, in the reader of the translated text, as the original.

This is obviously difficult to attain if we do not have a sufficient command of the cultural context of the languages we translate into. So I would like to animate a forum, here on cucumiss, based on cultural exchange. A forum where we can share our traditions, rituals, local know-how… with other cucumists. Widening our general cultural knowledge will surely enhance the quality of our translations in the future.

I think this main cultural theme could be subdivided into the following domains: (I’m also giving some ideas of specific threads)

Culinary –

“Tell me what you eat, I’ll tell you where you’re from” – A topic where you can tell us about your national/regional/traditional dish (include a recipe so we can all have a taste)

“Table Manners!” – A topic to tell us about how your meals take place – eating utensils, seating, “What time do we eat?”

Dress –

Traditional dress, National costumes, Ornaments and accessories, Body art (tattoos, scarification…) With photos!!!!

Flora, Fauna & Physical geography – Which animals, plants are endemic? Tell us about your landscape.

Proverbs, superstitions, local beliefs

Rites and Rituals – Marriages, births, deaths, bar mitzvah, aït el kabir…

Sports and Leisure - Traditional, local sports, music, instruments, theatre...

Arts de Vivre – housing, handcraft, local know how.

I’m not sure I have covered ALL the different aspects, so if anyone wants to suggest other domains, please feel free to do so. The different "titles" are just suggestions for the time being, so let me know what you all think?

Bises
Tantine

Good ideas Tantine!

Ps...I tried to open a little thread just about food after you and me discussed it some time ago...but no, NOT much response there.

Wow, I want to answer this one.

Go Ceará!

I'm a Normand guy, so I like meals prepared with cream. And apparently not only Normands like it, as I could experiment some Danish recipe that I'll try to copy hereunder :

You'll need, for 4 persons (sorry for those who are used to measure in English weight, some equivalence would be usefull, I promise I'll provide some link about) :

-500g heifer liver
-750g potatoes
-2 big onions
-salt and pepper
-vegetal oil (2 big spoonful)
-Butter
-20 cl cream

1- Put the heifer liver and the potatoes in a mixer, in order to obtain some kind of past. Salt and pepper this past

2- Cut your onions in rings

3- In a large pail, put the butter and the vegetal oil, and cook your liver/potatoes paste in this pail, making some little pancakes with it.

4- Put onion rings on each little pancake before turning them over.

5- When it is well cooked, take these pancakes off and hold them hot in an oven, just the time you'll need to pour the cream in the pail, and remove by rubbing the bottom of your pail with a "spatule à beurre/butterpat"(any wooden spoon will do it). Let the cream sauce getting thicker.

6- serve in hot plates and eat it with some salad and French fried potatoes, it is delicious!

Note that I found this recipe while heifer liver was still a cheap meal, it is now more expensive as price of the food has remarkably increased these last times (more 40 and some percent for basic stuff like butter, cream, and I'm not speaking about the meat...) so what was a cheap recipe some thirty years ago from now isn't that cheap anymore...

I've open the new forums, let's see...

New forums?

WOoow how pretty!

Hi jp

What more can I say than "Wow!!! Merci beaucoup"

Bisous
Tantine