I recently read that while the future of dictionaries in book form may be threatened by online versions, there will always be a market for bilingual dictionaries. But will a new work that translates Argentine slang into English find its niche? James Bracken started writing the new dictionary, entitled Che Boludu, “as a joke,” but got caught up in the fascinating world of idiomatic expressions in general, and Argentine Spanish idiosyncrasies in particular. “’Every country has its slang, but Argentines use a lot of jargon when they speak. Not even they realize how many of these terms they use because they're such an inseparable part of their speech,’” said the author in an article published in the Latin American Herald Tribune. "’During my first years in Argentina I began to take note of all this because I wanted to understand what people were saying. At first I joked that I had written a book because I had piles of paper with my notes written on them. But all this finally did turn into a book.” The dictionary, unlike most, includes both literal and figurative language translations of the different expressions. The author feels the concept will be of interest not only to English-speakers, but to Spanish-speakers from countries other than Argentina as well. The creation of such a work underscores the complexity of languages, and why translators need to possess perfect mastery of the idiomatic expressions which vary from country to country, even within the same language. At Language Translation, Inc. in San Diego, we have been providing professional language translation services since 1989. Spanish translation is one of our specialties. Let us show you how good translation should be. Betty Carlson Sign up for one of our free language translation guides in order to learn more about the translation process. | 
