Comments

Lost in translation — 11 Comments

  1. i’m often translating from dutch to english..then i run it past my friend who understanding so, translates it to english for me and we compare..often to hularity

    irish to canadian and canadian back i feel we miss but understand, keep at it i love the blog and your opinions et all
     

  2. You can imagine the problems I have with greek!

    It takes hours to work out the electricity bill never mind letters from the council.
     By the way you are  Παππούς should you ever need to know.

  3. I get asked to date beautiful Russian girls, pretty Philipinos (girls, I hope) and other such girls from just about every country in the world, I have no trouble with translation (apart from the exhortations being in English) it says reply to any of these adverts (for want of a better word) and I’ll take you for every penny you have, you idiot.

  4. Forget google translate. Translation software uses algorithms and relies mainly on language usage statistics and word substitution. At its core, automated translation is an attempt to simplify human language and it very seldom, if ever, produces a viable and usable translation. Picking words is not equal to translating

  5. I deal with peoples written english most days. Trying to decypher it is head wrecking.
    They should bring back writing skills in the schools. All this txting shite has wrecked the
    legibility of the written word.

  6. Cat – I didn’t know there was Canadian.  I thought you all spoke American or French?

    Meltemian – I like it!  Should I change the site name to Παππούς?  It might confuse a few people though..  Ah well….

    Patrick – I wonder what the chances are of some stunning young blonde picking an email at random and finding the true love of her life?  Not very high, I would imagine.

    Slab – I could not agree more.  Is it laziness?  Are they trying to be clever?  Or are they really so fucking thick that they think that’s the way to spell words?

  7. Slab

    The phrase about people in glass houses and stone-throwing could be applied to your case.  Let’s look at what you wrote ….

    “I deal with peoples (should be ‘people’s’) written english (should be ‘English’) most days. Trying to decypher (decipher is the more common spelling)  it is head wrecking (this is a colloquialism, and in any event there should be a hyphen between the two words).

    They should bring back writing skills in (should be ‘into’)  the (no need for ‘the’ here) schools. All this txting (‘texting’) shite (colloquialism) has wrecked the legibility of the written word”

    I agree with your point, but surely your writing should reflect it?

  8. “Давай, дедуля жги еще!” means “write more, grandpa!”.
    Don’t know why the author of the comment wrote it in russian, but the comment itself is positive.
    Either me come here from above link of f5, they translated few your tales.
    Since than I just keep reading it. Very like your blog, thanks!

  9. Welcome, Another Max!  Thank you for that translation.  It is a little more sensible than “Come on, Grandpa still burn!” and I am flattered.

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