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Sat, May 26 2012
Online translation websites: A cautionary tale
Photo: Reuters
A British couple who have decided to retire in Bulgaria wrote to The Sofia Echo to complain about what seemed to be the use of foul language on a Bulgarian-language website - but the episode has turned out to be a cautionary tale about the use of online translation websites.
The couple, who do not read or speak Bulgarian, ran some information from a Bulgarian site through Google Translate, trying to provide friends with details about flight information.
Unfortunately, because of the omission of a hyphen in the Bulgarian-language transliteration of the word "check-in" - the term used was Чекин Информация - Google Translate confused the first word with a vulgar Bulgarian expression. The result was a translation that read: "F...ing Information".
Offended, the couple wrote to the owners of the site but, at this writing, have received no reply.
Elsewhere on the same site, "check-in" is rendered as чек-ин - with that vital hyphen - which when fed through Google Translate produces an accurate, and certainly less startling, result.
Google Translate offers users a button by which they can suggest a more accurate translation, and this could be a case for using it.
The tale is a cautionary one, but also proof that in many languages, a hyphen can really matter. As noted in The Sofia Echo Stylebook, for example, there is a difference between a hard-working journalist and a hard working journalist.
The couple, who do not read or speak Bulgarian, ran some information from a Bulgarian site through Google Translate, trying to provide friends with details about flight information.
Unfortunately, because of the omission of a hyphen in the Bulgarian-language transliteration of the word "check-in" - the term used was Чекин Информация - Google Translate confused the first word with a vulgar Bulgarian expression. The result was a translation that read: "F...ing Information".
Offended, the couple wrote to the owners of the site but, at this writing, have received no reply.
Elsewhere on the same site, "check-in" is rendered as чек-ин - with that vital hyphen - which when fed through Google Translate produces an accurate, and certainly less startling, result.
Google Translate offers users a button by which they can suggest a more accurate translation, and this could be a case for using it.
The tale is a cautionary one, but also proof that in many languages, a hyphen can really matter. As noted in The Sofia Echo Stylebook, for example, there is a difference between a hard-working journalist and a hard working journalist.
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Online translation tools are invaluable. However, (and it is true that I haven't checked policy lately) Google Translate, for example, allows anyone to provide alternative translations and whether they are vetted or not I don't know but it has led to many anomalies.
Two that I am aware of…
The Bulgarian currency is sometimes translated correctly to English and on other occasions it is substituted with "euros".
The titles of television programs and movies were translating incorrectly. The most obvious was "Midsomer Murders" which, in the Bulgarian TV listings for the Hallmark channel was [...]
Read the full comment quite correctly shown as "Убийства в Мидсъмър". However, when translating from Bulgarian to English, the phrase "STRAIGHT FROM THE HEART" (in capitals)was provided (it has been corrected now).
The real cautionary tale, of course, is: if you decide to retire somewhere, learn the language :)
With all due respect to the author/s of your 'Stylebook' (there is no such word, I guess you mean Style-book), I don't think there's the slightest difference between a 'hard-working' and a 'hard working' journalist. It's simply an example, of which there are a multitude these days, of where the use of a hyphen has become optional.
It is also a sign of the times that instead of using a perfectly appropriate Bulgarian phrase, they chose to transliterate from English - thus making a word that does not exist in either lanuage. My personal favourite is Чикън (Chicken) in the Happy Restaurant Menu - although they also use Пиле elsewhere just to ensure total confusion. At this rate Bulgarian as such will vanish in about 50 years!!!