Aug 27, 2008 08:42
16 yrs ago
English term

to sell Spanish

Non-PRO English Bus/Financial Business/Commerce (general)
I saw this in an American blog about Spain and I don't know if this is an expression in English. I've never heard it before. Does it mean anything like 'to sell rubbish'?
Change log

Aug 27, 2008 11:31: writeaway changed "Language pair" from "English to Dutch" to "English"

Discussion

Non-ProZ.com (asker) Aug 27, 2008:
I'm sorry, it wasn't very clear indeed. The sentence it comes from is: (In Spain) you need to understand Spanish customs, Spanish etiquette and Spanish business culture. Otherwise, you'll just be another American trying to "sell Spanish".
Vincentius Mariatmo Aug 27, 2008:
I pretty sure that "to sell Spanish" is not an idiom nor an expression. Sindy's comment above is right. Please provide more context / sentence. Thank you ^^
Kim Metzger Aug 27, 2008:
Please provide at least one full sentence in which the term is used.
sindy cremer Aug 27, 2008:
..or perhaps it means "selling Spanish property" or something else Spanish but without more context it's impossible to say!

Responses

1 day 9 hrs
Selected

refers to the tendency of American companies to market products to Spanish-speakers in the USA

Due to the 20 million or so (it might be a higher number now) Spanish speakers in the United States, American companies routinely develop and pay for Spanish-language advertisements on Spanish-speaking media in the USA. However, it doesn't mean these companies understand Spanish-speaking culture very well, or its diversity. They are just trying to "sell Spanish" (not a term I'd heard before either) as part of a larger strategy, without necessarily understanding the diversity of the Hispanic community or much detail about it.
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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer.
+1
7 hrs
English term (edited): Another American trying to sell spanish

To sell something you didn't know well

I got the idea about this expression after reading the article in the link below. The main idea is not "to sell Spanish", but "another American trying to sell Spanish" -> the name of the countries is not important, you can change them as you want.

Basically, it's just like you are trying to sell something you didn't know well. Even worse, you are like an elementary student giving a mathematic lecture in front of the University Professors.
Hope this helps.
CMIIW ^^
Peer comment(s):

agree keshab
8 mins
Thank you keshab ^^
neutral Ken Cox : The author of the cited text (apparently the asker's text) has been living in Spain for 20 years, and he put the term in quotes, so it might be a literal translation of a Spanish term (and not necessarily good English).
59 mins
Thank you for your comment Ken. It is quite possible too ^^
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-1
8 hrs

Vender en Español pero no a los Españoles

Just another american trying to sell in spanish...to Spanish people...into Spain.
Peer comment(s):

neutral José Gralike (X) : does "pero no a los Españoles" not mean "but not to Spanish people"?
39 mins
I don´t understand, please explain...
disagree d_vachliot (X) : Please stop using Spanish language in the English monolingual forum.
18 hrs
Ok Dim.
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