Wer ist Maria Montessori?

English translation: Who is Maria Montessori?

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)

German term or phrase:	"Wer ist Maria Montessori?
English translation:	Who is Maria Montessori?
Entered by:	Chris Rowson (X)

06:48 May 30, 2002

German to English translations [PRO]
Art/Literary - Education / Pedagogy / Education

German term or phrase: Wer ist Maria Montessori?

I am translating the webpage of a Montessori school. One section is titled as above, followed by "Maria Montessori wurde 1870 in Chiaravalle bei Ancona (Italien) geboren und starb 1952 in Holland."

"Who is ... " seems strange. I could make it "Who was ..." but then it doesn´t correspond to the orginal. Cécile, my resident German adviser, suggested "About ...". But maybe it should after all be "Who is ..." on the grounds that it corresponds to the original. But does it, really? And if not, what does?

Chris Rowson (X) KudoZ activity Questions: 529 (none open) Answers: 1511
Local time: 09:10

who is

Explanation:
Sorry to bombard with examples, but my vote goes for "Who is..." Not only does it correspond to the original, but in this context, I think it sounds like the most natural question.

HTH!

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Selected response from:

Beth Kantus
United States
Local time: 03:10

Grading comment

Certainly there are many cases where tense usage is different between German and English and one consequently transforms, but I don´t believe this is one of them - "Wer ist" is here at least as striking as "Who is".

I was just about to send the translation off, avoiding the issue with Cécile´s "About ..." reinforced by Steffen, when I checked once more, and saw this. Together with 16 Google hits for "Who is Maria Montessori?" it convinced me to to use the literal translation.

Reviewing these answers and discussing further with Cécile uncovers a multitude of linguistic niceties. It seems it is actually more questionable in this context to use "Wer ist" in German than "Who is" in English. But the text was so well drafted that it was certainly intentional.

"Komische Sprache" - "Welche?" - "Alle".

4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer

Summary of answers provided

4 +5

who is

Beth Kantus

4 +4

I'd go with "was"

Klaus Dorn (X)

4 +4

"Some facts about Maria Montessori"

CHENOUMI (X)

4 +4

was/is

wrtransco

5 +2

About...

Steffen Walter

Answers

3 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

I'd go with "was"

Explanation:
It's more correct, yes, not exactly true to the original, but at least correct.

If you want to keep out of any trouble, why not use "Maria Montessori - the person" as a heading. This way tense doesn't matter.

Klaus Dorn (X)
Local time: 10:10
Native speaker of:

English,

German
PRO pts in category: 4

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

"Some facts about Maria Montessori"

Explanation:
I agree with you: "Who is..." and "Who was.." don't sound quite right.

Just some suggestions for you:

1) Some bio data about Maria...
2) Some bio facts about Maria...
3) Background info about M.Montessori
4) A biographical look at Maria M...
5) A glance over the life of M. M..
6) A retrospective look on Maria M...
7) Maria Montessori's Life at a glance

Well, I hope that you get well inspired by all these titles. :°)
Good luck!

P.S. You may want to spell biographical out, that's up to you.

CHENOUMI (X)
Native speaker of:

Haitian-Creole,

French

11 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +4

was/is

Explanation:
I truly do not see your problem. If you have a German sentence, such as "Wartest du hier schon lange?" Would you translate this in the present tense into English? Being "true" to the original does not mean to "massaker" the target language!

wrtransco
Local time: 03:10
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 4

12 mins confidence:

peer agreement (net): +2

About...

Explanation:
just sounds perfect to me.

I'd prefer this to "Who is/was"

In German, it should IMO read "Wer war..." to correctly reflect the fact that M.M. is no longer alive (a person in history)

--------------------------------------------------
Note added at 2002-05-30 20:00:31 (GMT)
--------------------------------------------------

Seems like you\'re now left to your own devices, Chris (apart from Cécile, of course). Five answers and at least the same number of opinions, and what\'s more, all of them IMO correct and justifiable. Take your pick.

Steffen Walter
Germany
Local time: 09:10
Native speaker of:

German
PRO pts in category: 232

3 hrs confidence:

peer agreement (net): +5

who is

Beth Kantus
United States
Local time: 03:10
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 4

Grading comment

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