jueves, 28 de enero de 2016

Language barrier: Disney princesses


Good morning. Today I show you an illustration of the artist Amy Mebberson.



It appears Pocahontas and Snow White. Both princesses love nature and they have a sweet and melodic relationship with it in Disney films. In this image, this communication gives sense to the translation

The joke is that possibly Pocahontas says nothing, at least that would be the perception of any listener, just like when someone says “bla, bla, bla”. However, Snow White, who undestands the voice of the animals, seems to understand perfectly what Pocahontas says. 

Where is then the language barrier? Although it may seem otherwise, the princesses don't understand eachother.


Here I let you the web of the artist in order that you can see her cute drawings.

lunes, 11 de enero de 2016

How to solve a translation problem: Futurama

If you have followed me during the last months, you'll know that, apart from translation, I like also sci-fi in films, series or books. Futurama is a sci-fi animation serie, which is set in the year 3000. My post of today is related precisely with the translation of this serie.

The original language is English and in the chapter about I'm going to talk, Professor Farnsworth has invented an universal translator that only translates into a dead language. In the original version in English, and as in Spanish version, the “dead language” is French

English

Spanish

However, if we watch the chapter in French, it is not possible that this language, into which the machine translates, was French too. That's why, the translators of the serie had to choose another “dead language”: German.


That is another curious translation case, because a serie that it is translated into different languages, and, as in this chapter, it plays also with them, translators face to this type of problems. In this case, it has been solved in a correct form. Maybe there are people who think that this solution is very far of the original, but in some cases, and this is a very good example, translation doesn't go together with the source text, because it won't have any sense. In addition, the context and the idea of the machine keep intact, as well as the touch of humor talking precisely about one of the most spoken languages nowadays.  

sábado, 9 de enero de 2016

Google Translator: Russia and Mordor

Good morning!

Yesterday I read an article about a “fantastic” mistake of Google Translator. Apparently in the translation from Ukranian into Russian, the sentence “Russian Federation” was translated like “Mordor”, the fictitious land of The Lord of The Rings ruled by the evil Sauron.


Logically, Russia doesn't mean Mordor, but it was a translation mistake, because Google Translator works with statistics and it chose wrong with the analysis of all documents that it uses. Google Translator doesn't apply gramatical rules and that's why it makes this kind of mistakes.

The reflection about this topic is not to use directly a translation from an automatic traslator. You have to check it always or, if the text has a languages that you don't control, ask for help. A translator or proofreader will help you. This mistake about Mordor is very showy, but it is possible that the translator will make some unnoticed mistakes and your text won't have the quality that it requires.

Here you have the article in Spanish. 

lunes, 4 de enero de 2016

Open Source: how to jump on the bandwagon

Good morning and happy new year!

Today I was reading an article about Open Source and I have discovered an expression that I didn't know in English: jump on the bandwagon. For those who don't know the meaning, jump on the bandwagon means to play along or take advantage of something that is already working. In Spanish means subirse al carro. It has nothing to do with a real wagon.

As you can see, the translation may be literal: saltar o subirse al carro. However, in order to understand the meaning, it is necessary to know the connotation of the expression.

If you don't recognize some expression when you read it, my piece of advice is to read the complete phrase or paragraph. The context will help you to understand the meaning. In addition, you can go to a translator, dictionary or glossary to check it and learn something new.

I let you here the article about Open Source. It is very interesting and you can also improve your English. Just like me.

Regards!