More than once now I have been contacted or run across questions about how to translate bell ringer activities into Spanish. And so here I am sharing the English to Spanish words and phrases I have come across as well as asking for your suggestions.
On one occasion Diana, her sister (a public school Spanish teacher) and I did a little brainstorming and came up with the following suggestions:
• Ponte las pilas….you could also use this as a small example of Spanish variations in countries, as this phrase for Argentina would be ponete las pilas (see the top illustration from the book Speaking Argento). In English this phrase literally means something like “put your batteries on!”
• Romper el hielo or Rompiendo el hielo. In English it means “ice breaker.”
• Lanzar in some form, like lanzamiento or lánzate that in English is the word for “launch.”
• Actívate, this can be used in conjunction with other phrases like, actividad, activo, activamente, etc. Actívate means “activate” in English.
• Animándonos, or something with animar like anímate. In English it is equivalent to “cheering up.”
• En sus marcas, listos, fuera…is the equivalent of “on your mark, get set, go”, and you could use this to literally start the class too.
Besides our brainstorm for bell ringer translations we received these suggestions from teachers:
• Campanadas which is more literal to “bell-ringers” than what we came up with, but everyone agrees that this works well too
• Adelante or “going forward”
• Trabajo del timbre or literally “bell work.”
What other words or terms have you heard to say “bell ringer” in Spanish?
Check out these other English Spanish articles.
