"Co děláš, zatímco já dělám?"
Translation:What do you do while I work?
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Ale ano, v ČJ namísto "pracovat" můžeme použít i "dělat". Je to celkem běžné. Ta věta je moc povedená. Taková hra se slovíčky.
In the course, "dělat" very often is translated with the meaning of "to work." I THINK it was described in another discussion as (sort of) colloquial but often used.
Is there a reason why while I am working is not accepted? Is it because of the aspect (non perfective)?
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Oh, hmm, good question. I'm following this discussion. Aspect is the thing I most struggle with with Czech.
That translation just doesn't work. In English, you would need an "action" verb instead of the second "do." What do you do while I... write letters, read a book, go to the theater, etc.
true thing, but I asked natives and in this case "delat" is not used properly. if you want to use it as "to work" and not "to do", you at least have to specify something else like: "delam z domu" "i work from home" "delam pro firmu" "I work for a company" but without any complement like these ones, "delat" doesn't mean "to work", but only "to do".
That's true, "dělat" in the meaning of "to work" is normally accompanied by something, e.g. "dělám na zahradě" or "v sobotu dělám jen dopoledne"... but "dělat" in the meaning of "to do" always has an object, just like it does in English (unless used as an aux.verb) - "dělám večeři", "co děláš?", "dělá problémy" etc.
The sentence "Co děláš, zatímco já dělám?" is sort of a pun. The second "dělat" cannot be interpreted as anything but "work" precisely because it has no object.
Am I correct in assuming that both verbs are the same but different conjugation? Thx
Yes. Dělat is the infinitive; the first form is second second person singular, and the last is first person singular.
"What do you do while I am at work?" is idiomatically the same in AE. Why isn't that accepted?
While I agree with the point that you make, I would suggest that it may not be an accepted translation IF that rendering in English would be a different sentence in Czech. The Czech sentence is always the starting point for an exercise.
We would have "Co děláš, zatímco jsem v práci?" there, for example, in Czech.