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Glossary entry

Spanish term or phrase:

nivel cultural y de instruccion

English translation:

cultural and educational level

Added to glossary by peter jackson
Nov 3, 2014 06:20
9 yrs ago
13 viewers *
Spanish term

nivel cultural y de instruccion

Spanish to English Social Sciences Linguistics
From a study on diglossia in children in Morocco. I am assuming this is "cultural and educational level" but would like to be sure.

Además, la lengua fuerte es usada preferentemente por los niveles altos de la sociedad, correlacionándose positivamente con el nivel cultural y de instrucción, usándose sobre todo en las ciudades, mientras que la lengua débil es usada mayoritariamente en los niveles inferiores y en el campo.
Proposed translations (English)
4 +6 cultural and educational level
4 +1 level of education and training
4 social and educational level
Votes to reclassify question as PRO/non-PRO:

Non-PRO (1): Michele Fauble

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Discussion

peter jackson (asker) Nov 3, 2014:
@ Charles and Simon Many thanks for your input. Sorry I have been away from the PC. I did think at first that perhaps the expression in Spanish was a little tautological. However, as I have the benefit of the whole text it seems the author is using cultural in a broader sense. The article refers to Modern Standard Arabic, the "lengua fuerte" as the language used in schools, the media and in the world of culture. So I think I will stick with my first version. Thanks, again.
Charles Davis Nov 3, 2014:
Don't get me wrong; I'm not denying for a moment that "nivel cultural" is commonly used in Spanish as a synonym of "nivel educativo", directly correlated with formal education, and it could mean that here. And I agree that it often refers to something that we probably wouldn't call "culture" in English. So I'm not sure either. A high or low "nivel cultural" means being "culto" or "inculto", and these words can mean well/badly educated (in the formal sense), civilised/uncivilised, knowledgeable/ignorant, interested/uninterested in cultural products, or some combination of these things.
Simon Bruni Nov 3, 2014:
@ Charles Well you make a convincing argument for that more specific meaning of "nivel cultural", but I'm still not sure it's cut-and-dried. Personally I would still be inclined to assume that the author is more likely to have used the term with its normal, rather than specialised, associations, but we don't have enough evidence to be certain either way.
Charles Davis Nov 3, 2014:
See here, for example:

"El éxito académico de los jóvenes depende de su nivel cultural [...]
Una mayor cultura en los jóvenes implicaría un mayor rendimiento y por tanto, un mayor éxito escolar [...]
En su estudio, Neira quiere dejar claro que la cultura es también productiva "en términos económicos y no solo sociales" y que si las familias con mayores conocimientos culturales se los transmitieran a sus hijos, "se contribuiría al tan soñado modelo productivo de la economía", sostiene."
http://www.elcorreogallego.es/galicia/ecg/exito-academico-jo...

Perhaps "level of culture and educational attainment" would express it better.

A person's level of culture, it seems to me, will usually depend on their level of education, but not necessarily. There are people who, for whatever reason, had limited formal education and never went to university, for example, but who have a higher level of culture than many who did.

In fact there are millions of graduates out there with a minimal cultural level. And I don't just mean that they don't go to the opera; they are just not interested in the culture of their society.
Simon Bruni Nov 3, 2014:
@ Charles Food for thought, thank you Charles. I have never come across "cultural level" and if it has that meaning within the field of sociology then perhaps you're right. However, in everyday use, "nivel cultural" refers to a person's level of education and it's not unusual for authors to marry two terms with some semantic overlap (I see 'nivel cultual' as a general level of education or personal development and 'nivel de instrucción' as formal qualifications).
Charles Davis Nov 3, 2014:
Nivel cultural Vacuous is an unduly tendentious term. In effect, you're saying that it's meaningless, and I don't agree with that. While it is true that "cultura" and "cultural" can be false friends, and can refer to knowledge acquired through education rather than what we would call culture, that is by no means always true and I think it's unlikely to be the case here.

"Level of education and training" is saying the same thing twice. It's a tautology, unless by training you mean practical skills, in which case it's a mistranslation, since "instrucción" certainly doesn't imply that.

"Nivel cultural" refers to what I think we would normally call cultural level and is measured by use of cultural resources: books, newspapers, music, films, etc. It is a function of the home environment, in the case of children. It is obviously less precisely measurable than educational attainment, which is cut and dried, but sociologists have methods of measuring it.
Simon Bruni Nov 3, 2014:
"cultural level" in reference to a person seems pretty vacuous to me. In Spanish it refers to their general level of education. The difference arises in the fact that "cultura" in Spanish can mean (from the RAE):

cultura.

2. f. Conjunto de conocimientos que permite a alguien desarrollar su juicio crítico.
peter jackson (asker) Nov 3, 2014:
@Charles Thanks, Charles. It just seemed an odd expression but the article is "plagado" with them .....
Charles Davis Nov 3, 2014:
@Peter You're right and need have no doubts. "Nivel cultural" is obvious and uncontroversial, I presume. "Nivel de instrucción" does indeed mean level of education, as it's commonly called in the UK, which could be called educational level here. In the US the term "educational attainment" is standard for this: namely the highest level of education completed.

"El nivel de instrucción de una persona es el grado más elevado de estudios realizados o en curso, sin tener en cuenta si se han terminado o están provisional o definitivamente incompletos."
http://www.eustat.es/documentos/idioma_c/opt_0/tema_303/elem...

Proposed translations

+6
59 mins
Selected

cultural and educational level

yes, you are right
Peer comment(s):
agree neilmac
7 mins
agree Charles Davis
1 hr
agree James A. Walsh
4 hrs
agree Michele Fauble
10 hrs
agree Muriel Vasconcellos
14 hrs
agree Anilu Fernandez (X)
3 days 4 hrs
Something went wrong...
4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Many thanks."
+1
1 hr

level of education and training

I disagree with "cultural level". What does that mean? One's "nivel cultural", in Spain at least, in reference to a person, normally refers to one's level of education. Here's the Oxford Spanish entry:

cultural adjetivo cultural; un acto cultural a cultural event; el interés cultural demostrado por los jóvenes the interest in the arts o in culture shown by young people; bajo nivel cultural low standard of general education

"Cuando se habla de nivel cultural de alguna persona, se hace referencia al grado de su escolarización y de cursos paralelos, que denoten su grado de conocimiento, en lengua, matemática, ciencias, artes e idiomas."

http://deconceptos.com/ciencias-sociales/cultural
Peer comment(s):
agree Elizabeth Joy Pitt de Morales : Yes, 100% correct. Nothing to do with "culture" per se.
37 mins
neutral Charles Davis : I think this is very unlikely, partly because it's a tautology and partly because although "nivel cultural" can be a loose synonym for educational level it isn't always and I don't think it is here.
53 mins
Something went wrong...
20 hrs

social and educational level

even though it says cultural when I read it I get social level from it, and I don't feel like I get cultural level as a term in this context in English, and then also it is contrasted with lower levels and rural areas so I feel it more as social but this is purely an aesthetic call
Something went wrong...
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