Thread: Necesito traducción por favor

Hi, I'm pretty new to this forum. I'm new to the Spanish language and am taking Spanish classes at my high school. I have a project where I have to write about my experience at a Spanish Day of the Dead exhibition. I just wrote a draft and I know that it is FILLED with errors, but I tried my best. I know that there are a lot of you out there that are native speakers and I would be very grateful if you could help me out with checking my translation:

• Para mi contacto cultural, fui a una exposición de arte en el Centro de Artes y Recreación en Baldwin Park. Fui el sábado con mi mamá y papá. El centro siempre tiene los programas de artes culturales. Yo fui a ver la exposición de Día de los Muertos. Fuera del centro era una celebración para Día de los Muertos. ¡Qué sorpresa! Había muchas cosas a ver. Yo elegí este proyecto porque quería a aprender más sobre Día de los Muertos.
  • For my contacto cultural, I went to an arts exhibit at the Baldwin Park Arts and Recreation Center. I went with my mom and dad on Saturday, November 8th. The center always has cultural arts programs. When I went, there was a Day of the Dead exhibit. Also, when I went there was a celebration right outside the center. What a surprise! I got to experience two exciting things. I picked this Project because I wanted to learn more about the Day of the Dead Celebration.

• Yo pasé sobre una hora a las Centro de Artes y Recreación. Primero, yo ví a las pinturas. Tomé muchos fotos incluir en este proyecto. Mi pintura favorita dijo, "Muerto en México". Era muy interesante. Después, me fui fuera y miré a las cabinas. Ví un hombre jugando instrumentos de mano tallado. Antes yo salí, yo compré un “hot dog” de estilo mexicano.
  • I spent an hour total at the Arts and Recreation Center. For the first half, I toured through the exhibits. I took many pictures to include with this project. My favorite exhibit was a picture that said, “Muerto en Mexico”. It was very interesting. For the second half, I went outside and walked through the festival booths. I watched a man play hand carved instruments. I bought a Mexican style hot dog before I left.

• El Día de los Muertos parece a Halloween. Muchas de las cosas que ví me recordó de Halloween.
  • The Day of the Dead seems very much like Halloween. Many of the things I saw, especially all the skulls, reminded me of Halloween.

• La cultura de este proyecto se centra sobre la cultura oaxaqueña. El Día de los Muertos originó en Oaxaca, México. Día de los Muertos es una fiesta en la que las familias recuerdan a sus queridos fallecidos y honran a los espíritus que vuelven a sus hogares. Esto me recuerda el de Festival de la Linterna en China. Nosotros encendemos velas fuera nuestras casas guiar a los espíritus que han perdido sus casas.
  • The culture this project focuses on is Oaxacan culture. The Day of the Dead originated in Oaxaca, Mexico. Day of the Dead is a celebration when families honor deceased loved ones and welcome the spirits’ return home. This reminds me of the Lantern Festival in China. Candles are lit outside houses to guide lost spirits home.

• Yo he aprendido que México es un país de tradición y cultura. Yo admiro la diversidad que la cultura española trae al mundo.
  • I have learned that Mexico is a country of tradition and culture. I really admire the diversity the Spanish culture brings to the world.

• ¡Yo he aprendido tanto! La exposición había fotos y información debajo de les.
  • I have learned so much! The exhibit had pictures as well as information next to them.

• En comparación con mi último proyecto, me sentí mucho más preparado para esto. Pero, este proyecto necesitó menos español conversacional que mi último proyecto. Yo pude a tomar tiempo a pensar sobre la información era leyendo. Sin embargo, me tome mucho tiempo a terminar este proyecto. Yo utilizé un libro llamado "501 Spanish Verbs" para me ayude.
  • Compared to my last Project, I felt a lot more prepared for this one. But, it was probably because this one involved much more reading than conversational Spanish. I was able to take time and digest the information I needed to learn. Still, it took me a lot of time to finish the project. I used a book called “501 Spanish Verbs” to help me.

• Me gustó este proyecto. Pude a ver muchas pinturas y también aprender mucho sobre la cultura mexicana. Y me encantó el “hot dog” de estilo mexicano.
  • I really liked this project. I was able to see many portraits and also learn a lot about Mexican culture. And I loved the Mexican style hot dog. I would definitely recommend the project to other students.

• Yo recomendaría este proyecto a otros estudiantes, porque enseña muchas cosas acerca de la cultura.
  • I would recommend this project to other students, because it teaches many things about culture.

I know this is very long, so I would be very grateful to whoever will help me out, I'm not doing too well in my class and I could use all the help I can get. It took me almost a whole day to write this and it would be awesome if the effort pays off when my teacher grades it, haha. Thanks!

@ Maria Laura: Thanks for giving me a second chance, if you look above to the original post, you'll see that its changed.
__________________________________________________ __________________________________________

@exxentrica: Yes, I did use a computer translation to help me out. And I admit that in this instance I was very sloppy with its use. I relied too much upon it.

BUT, in my defense...

Yes, I did use a computer translation to help me out with this. But, unlike your assumption, I did not simply just type paragraphs into Google Translate and click the button.

People have different ways of learning. I use computer translation to provide me with the basic structure of the sentence and then work from there. I find this is a very efficient way for me to learn. If you had taken the time to look closely enough at the original post, you would have seen that MY translations were, in fact, NOT like the google version you took the liberty to copy and paste in your post to prove to everyone your point.

BUT, I concede - again - that I relied on computer translation way too much this time: thus the "a la izquierda" mistake. It was stupid. I know. I'm sorry for that. Yet, it seems as if you targeted that one mistake, that one phrase, that one mishap, and created a whole host of assumptions.

You even took the liberty to look up my previous posts, bring them back up, and discredit me based on the conclusion you made off that one phrase.

Now, I'm sorry for relying too heavily on a computer translation for this particular post. But you should also be less hasty to jump to conclusions. And if you do, please don't put it in such a detrimental manner:

Originally Posted by exxcéntrica

Good luck, somewhere else.

And a good advice for you future: Never subestimate people.

by now, you're probably thinking, "hey this kid has less than ten posts. He doesn't even contribute to this forum. Why should I care what he thinks?" Well, that's completely in your liberty to think.

But as for me: Sorry, exxcentrica.

__________________________________________________ __________________________________________

Thanks to anyone that can help me translate, the text is in the first post!