English Language & Usage Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for linguists, etymologists, and serious English language enthusiasts. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
I would like to translate a name of a course "Initiation à la programmation" in French to English. The course aims at presenting students with the very basic concepts of programming and make them get started.
Does anyone know which way is the best?
The French phrase seems to be a set phrase referring to instruction in computing, but while the word “initiation” is also a word in English, it does not have that exact meaning hear, and so it is not a good translation of the idea you want to convey.
Instead, I’d suggest two options, both of which are set-phrases in English for basic instruction in a subject.
In British usage, the name foundation course is used for exactly the same sort of course as your “initiation à l’informatique”.
In 2018, President Emmanuel Macron of France, on a state visit to Australia, described the wife of the Australian Prime Minister as “delicious”. He actually meant “delightful” (déliceuse), and yes, the English word does come from French, but it lost the meaning of “delightful” a long time ago, and now it only means “tasty”.
Just because a word is common across a language, it does not mean that all of its meanings are!
Because of the conquest of England by the Normans, English has a lot of words that entered the language from French. (In that sentence alone, there are four: “because”, “conquest”, “entered” and “language”). Some of these common words, or cognates, have kept the same meaning over the years, but for others, that meaning has diverged to the point where they are “false friends”. There are so many between English and French that you really have to be very careful when translating between them.
Professional translation companies prefer to hire translators who are “in-country” for this reason. Ideally, translations into any language should be done by someone who speaks the language fluently with native-speakers every day. That last part, daily use, is important: a French person who learned English to a high level and has lived and worked in London for a long time will be able to provide you with better English translations than an English person who has lived and worked in Paris for years and mostly speaks French.
