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Fourth ProZ.com Translation Contest: "Raising children" » English to French

Competition in this pair is now closed.

Source text in English

When my wife told me she was pregnant, I got that stomach-churning sensation that hits you on a plunging roller coaster. I was excited, yes, but... oh my God. Parenting was for, well, parents.

So here I stand, bug-eyed and sweating buckets like some poorly-drawn cartoon character, the question marks floating in the air around my head while I try to prepare myself for the complete care and responsibility of another living being besides my cat. I'm responsible for making sure this little human doesn't grow up and turn into a complete monster. If the child turns out a social moron-- my fault. If the babe can't find Luxembourg on the map, blame me for not providing a better education. They'll need therapy, and of course that will be on my head too. So many opportunities for wrong turns!

I remember the day my father sat me down and awkwardly told me about the birds and the bees; it was perhaps the most excruciating and embarrassing half hour of both our lives. I can't do that to another human being.

Maybe I'm getting a little ahead of myself here. I can do this, I say; I'll be a great father. My child will be reared a well-rounded, educated, upstanding citizen of the world, and he or she won't hate me.

And then I imagine the baby, still safe within the confines of my wife's belly, suddenly opening an alarmed eye as the thought enters his or her mind: "What if my dad just can't hack it?

The winning entries have been announced in this pair.

There were 26 entries submitted in this pair during the submission phase. The winning entries were determined based on finals round voting by peers.

Competition in this pair is now closed.


Entries (26 total) Expand all entries

Entry #1247
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
174 x401 x1
Entry #2096
Winner
Voting points1st2nd3rd
174 x401 x1
Entry #2153
Voting points1st2nd3rd
143 x41 x20
Entry #2330
Voting points1st2nd3rd
122 x404 x1
Entry #1412
Voting points1st2nd3rd
81 x42 x20
Entry #2011
Cl Te (X)
Cl Te (X)
France
Voting points1st2nd3rd
81 x42 x20
Entry #2309
Stéphanie Soudais (X)
Stéphanie Soudais (X)
France
Voting points1st2nd3rd
71 x41 x21 x1
Entry #1300
Voting points1st2nd3rd
703 x21 x1
Entry #1807
Voting points1st2nd3rd
201 x20
Entry #2057
Voting points1st2nd3rd
201 x20