Wait a minute!!

Question

The context is a medical encounter, where the patient has been prescribed two different drugs for treating a fungus. Taking just one of the drugs alone is hazardous, because it's toxic if not mitigated by the other drug. After the Spanish-speaking patient in this exercise tells the doctor he's only been taking one of the drugs -- the toxic one -- for the past two weeks, the doctor responds with "Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Are you telling me that you've been taking just one of these drugs? You can't go around just changing your own medications like that: I've already told you that."

The literal translation for the "wait a minute" is " Espere por un minuto." But the doctor's "wait a minute" is also expressing frustration, incredulity, maybe even alarm. Any ideas for equivalent idiom in Spanish? How about "No me digas que....."

The idiom is the trickiest part of translating in medical encounters. Les agradesco tanto por sus comentas y sugerencias.

Answer 1

If I were the doctor, I would have said something like:

"¿Qué es usted, un idiota? ¿Suicida? ¡Yo le dije tomar ambas píldoras!"

That would be tempting. It's scary how often scenarios like this take place, though: the patient doesn't understand the instructions on the prescription bottle, or comes from a completley different health care tradition. - carolynalcott, Dec 13, 2009

Answer 2

Aguarda! Aguarda! Me vas a decir.....

Aguarda is a good addition to my lexicon. Thanks! (I had to look it up.) - carolynalcott, Dec 12, 2009

Answer 3

I like "no me digas que ..." (but, I would, of course, defer to Heidita about anything concerning Spanish). Another possibility that occurs to me would be "Ojalá que no tomes ..."

Yep, that would work too. Because between English speakers, the meaning behind "Wait a minute" in this context is " You're kidding me...unbelievable." - carolynalcott, Dec 12, 2009

Answer 4

HI carolyn, you are right.

The idiom is the trickiest part of translating in medical encounters.

I would suggest here:

¡Pero bueno!

¡Pero cómo ha hecho esto!

Pero vamos a ver.......

There are several possibilities, but "espere un momento" is not one of them. You were quite right.

Heidita, eres maestrosa. And yes, especially in the limited amount of time that you have to translate the bare essentials in medical encounters, trying to translate the idiom is often an exercise in frustration. - carolynalcott, Dec 12, 2009