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English as She Is Spoke

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Re: English as She Is Spoke

#91
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is just something that I read somewhere so don't take it at face value, maybe someone who knows the issue better can confirm or deny it. But I remember reading that in Asian countries like China and Japan, they tend to base the selection of translators on knowledge of the source language, not the target. That is, they get the translator with the best knowledge of Chinese even if their English is broken.

So is this basically saying that a grammatically incorrect, but factually correct translation is better than a grammatically perfect, but factually incorrect (as the source text was not understood) translation?

Finnish and Japanese language education focuses extensively on grammatical correctness and students get faulted for making grammatical mistakes.

In the Netherlands, correct grammar is only a small part of the final score, and what is given far more weight is how well one is able to understand the speaker and convey one's thoughts to the listener, and far more emphasis is placed on practicing conversations, even though they not be grammatically sound, which in Finland would be considered walking before having learned to crawl, but it seems to work.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#93

For those with an afternoon to burn, check of Star War The Third Gathers: Backstroke of the West , a fan dub of a poor roundtrip translation of The Revenge of the Sith : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XziLNeFm1ok . It’s filled with gems of this type.

An absolute classic. Here's a summary of the best parts: https://starwarsfans.fandom.com/wiki/Star_War_The_Third_Gath...

Related: a long time ago, in a country far away where I grew up, I had a videotape of Star Wars with Spanish subtitles. It was awful. I think it was done by someone who didn't understand much English and knew nothing of Star Wars. I don't have that masterpiece anymore (nor a VCR player, for that matter), but off the top of my head:

- They translated "Millenium Falcon" as "Numidian Flot". "She can outrun imperial starships" somehow became "it made two imperial starships run away".

- Chewie was Yuri.

- Near the beginning, Vader says something like "send a distress signal, and inform the senate that everyone on board was killed". The translation meant "send a distress signal, gather the senate, and kill everyone".

- Near the end, Luke is doing the trench run, Vader shoots and misses, and says "the force is strong in this one". The translation meant "what a strange swinging motion".

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#94

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.

Interestingly, at least in the wikipedia examples, the literal translation is not even really literal. For instance, "As paredes têm ouvidos." literal translation is "The walls have ears". It's fascinating that they translated to "The walls have hearsay." I think that's an artefact from the initial Portuguese -> French translation.

That book is more like getting a phrase translate into a chain of languages and see what it comes out in the other side.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#96
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A Chinese guy I knew was studying for the TOEFL test and was memorizing all kinds of medical terms I'd never heard about, and yet, when he said goodbye he'd also say "I go first". At that time I had no idea why he did it, but as I learned more Mandarin it became clear that he just translated the phrase 我先走 (lit. I first go) which is very common when parting ways. Point being, many study for tests but can't speak Engl…

Is "I go first" a correct translation? If so, why is it used? As an excuse that you have to leave earlier than the person you have been with? Or to avoid that uncomfortable situation where both parties aren't sure if it is time to leave, and are just standing around awkwardly?

It is! I’ve been watching a bunch of Asian TV shows lately and I’ve seen that phrase crop up in both Thai and Taiwanese shows. I had the same question so I asked a friend who’s Thai about it. She said it’s equivalent to “I should get going”, “I’m going to head out”, or something of that nature.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#97

I have never understood why Chinese companies often have such hilariously bad English translations of their product instructions. Often the product quality is pretty good and the illustrations in the instructions are fine. But the English translation is terrible. There must be millions of Chinese people that speak decent English (in Hong Kong alone).

I love the English language and I have a deep fear that this is the final destination for our language; that given demographics it will start to permanently reflect Mandarin translationisms, at least in the workplace. So many code reviews and design docs I deal with now are full of missing articles and tenses. I try to help with corrections but it can honestly start to feel like you're a big jerk in a code review if you're constantly correcting people's English.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#98
post #96
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is "I go first" a correct translation? If so, why is it used? As an excuse that you have to leave earlier than the person you have been with? Or to avoid that uncomfortable situation where both parties aren't sure if it is time to leave, and are just standing around awkwardly?

It is! I’ve been watching a bunch of Asian TV shows lately and I’ve seen that phrase crop up in both Thai and Taiwanese shows. I had the same question so I asked a friend who’s Thai about it. She said it’s equivalent to “I should get going”, “I’m going to head out”, or something of that nature.

Wait, so it's more "I go now" than "I go first"?

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#99
post #80
post #53

Earlier quoted context omitted.

well? ...did the anus constricting work??

I tried doing that ten times in a succession and it’s hard. Can someone please explain shortly the essence of this method? Or what’s the joke is, at least.

Seems to work along the same principles as yoga. Strengthening of the root chakra if you're familiar with the lingo. If you're not familiar with a system like that, there's probably no short version.

Re: English as She Is Spoke

#100

I have never understood why Chinese companies often have such hilariously bad English translations of their product instructions. Often the product quality is pretty good and the illustrations in the instructions are fine. But the English translation is terrible. There must be millions of Chinese people that speak decent English (in Hong Kong alone).

Not just English. In my garage is a stepladder, with safety notices in English and Spanish. They are dated "May 20xx/Puede 20xx".
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