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English as She Is Spoke

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21–30 of 137 posts

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#21
An interesting cultural phenomenon is taking place because of automated translation services like Google Translate. I learned of it in another thread on HN a few months ago. People are realizing that what they write will be translated by machine and are adjusting their written language accordingly. This is one of those interesting side effects of tech on culture that is not immediately obvious, I think.

It's basically an extension of "international English" which avoids things like phrasal verbs or coloquialisms, but more from the standpoint of, "If my coworker in Shenzhen puts this text into Google Translate and tries to create documentation from it, is it going to sound ridiculous?" And then doing a few translate/reverse-translate passes yourself until you've tweaked the text enough so the input and output is the same. Eventually, you start writing this way by default.

This could be considered the same as telegram abbreviations, or even text-speak like "LOL" or whatever, but the key in this instance is we're changing our way of communicating based on what a computer can understand, not a fellow human.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#22

Google translate still spits out some pretty funny translations Portuguese: Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos. Google: This lake looks very fishy to me. Let's go fishing for fun. Actual : This lake looks full of fish. Let's have some fun fishing.

"Missed it by that much". Posted almost exactly the same within 30 seconds of you... Actually thought that I had some how double posted.

Lol you even formatted it similarly

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#23

Now I wonder, was the poorly translated game translated that way on purpose? From memory: > Someone set us up the bomb! > Make your time, ha ha ha.

That would be Zero Wing of "All your base are belong to us" fame, and no, that was just a bad translation. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/All_your_base_are_belong_to_us

Random anecdote: in 2005, when "all your base" was still in peak meme, I happened to be in Kuta Square in Bali with a friend when Jemaah Islamiyah blew up one of their devices. Rattled but unharmed and unclear on what exactly had just happened, we returned to our hotel and watched TV news. Once the penny dropped, the following dialogue ensued:

- What happen?

- Someone set us up the bomb.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#24
A similarly unintentional comedy in translation was a book I found several years ago that I believe was an autotranslation: "How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?". The amazon reviews are similarly hilarious.

https://www.amazon.com/How-Good-bye-Depression-Constrict-Eve...

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#25
post #24

A similarly unintentional comedy in translation was a book I found several years ago that I believe was an autotranslation: "How to Good-bye Depression: If You Constrict Anus 100 Times Everyday. Malarkey? or Effective Way?". The amazon reviews are similarly hilarious. https://www.amazon.com/How-Good-bye-Depression-Constrict-Eve...

That's crazy, according to the reviews the first 90 pages are also just usenet conversations where people are making fun of the author who apparently just copy-pasted the conversations into the book.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#26

> Mark Twain said of English as She Is Spoke that "Nobody can add to the absurdity of this book, nobody can imitate it successfully, nobody can hope to produce its fellow; it is perfect."[6] Maybe a weekend playing with gpt-3 will prove otherwise. Edit: nevermind it's not even grammatical

> it's not even grammatical

That's what GPT-2 is for!

"To craunch a marmoset, it may take less than two hours. But a brindle should be done within five."

"You mistake you! It is a frog. It is one of the most powerful of the edible frogs,' Jadon said as he dragged its body slowly toward the throne."

"That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing. This fish filled with colors, motion. O green and smooth, It move a high spiral."

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#27
I hope this is not too off-topic, but I really wish there were more (excellent) “literal translations”.

Yes: it would be tricky and unpalatable for much of the audience, but I personally find it fascinating to get in to the “mind” of a language and would like the opportunity without having to memorize (something I find particularly challenging) the “words” of a language.

Movie and TV subtitles especially.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#28

Google translate still spits out some pretty funny translations Portuguese: Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos. Google: This lake looks very fishy to me. Let's go fishing for fun. Actual : This lake looks full of fish. Let's have some fun fishing.

DeepL (which is sometimes better than Google) returns almost the same translation:

This lake looks pretty fishy to me. Let's go fishing for fun.

Maybe the language that the book uses is dated making those machine translation systems trip up?

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#29

Google translate is just as humorous and reasonably similar. eg: Este lago parece-me bem piscoso. Vamos pescar para nos divertirmos. Google -> This lake looks very fishy to me. Let's go fishing for fun. English as She is Spoke -> That pond it seems me many multiplied of fishes. Let us amuse rather to the fishing. English version -> This lake looks full of fish. Let's have some fun fishing.

“Let us amuse, rather, to the fishing!”

I could almost see this in a period drama.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#30

Now I wonder, was the poorly translated game translated that way on purpose? From memory: > Someone set us up the bomb! > Make your time, ha ha ha.

Zero Wing has nothing on the Vietnamese bootleg translation of Pokémon Crystal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BZ_bhwCgtXg

> Do you know how to use the phone?

> Of course, first you insert the pin of Xiuci, and then I select the Holy Figure!

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