Why Are ‘You’ Difficult?
I have been really busy the last month with the release of my company’s annual report and our UN Week programming. This year we had to translate our report into six languages – English, Spanish, French, Arabic, Chinese and Russian – to accommodate our growing clientele. The most difficult part of the translation process is the use of the word “you.”
We spend about a month usually working with our translators to get this pronoun right. All of the translators have a different way of using it. When I first learned Spanish and French in high school, I found the different versions of the word very difficult to understand. However, I then understood the use is based on a level of respect and plurality. Here’s a video about it.