Untranslatable Things

Untranslatable Words: words or phrases – okay, concepts – that are some of the most difficult to translate into other languages

Below is one category…more to come in the next few weeks…

Perfect Distillations Category
Words or phrases that sum up a concept perfectly

Fachidiot (German): Excessively narrow-minded technical expert.

Farpotshket (Yiddish): Something that is all fouled up, especially as the result of an attempt to fix it.

Attaccabottoni (Italian): A doleful bore who buttonholes people and tells sad pointless tales; literally, a button attacker.

Mokita (Kiriwina, New Guinea): A truth everybody knows but nobody speaks.

Mamihlapinatapai (Tierra del Fuego): Two people looking at each other each hoping the other will do what both desire but neither is willing to do.

Uovo di Colombo (Italian): A simple, obvious idea that doesn't occur to the person who could use it the most.

Kaelling (Danish): A woman who stands on her doorstep yelling obscenities at her kids.

Traer la lengua de corbata (Latin American Spanish): To be worn out; to be exhausted; literally, to have your tongue hanging out like a man’s tie.

L’esprit d’escalier (French): Used to describe the precise moment a person comes up with a clever retort to an embarrassing insult; literally, spirit of the staircase.

Nito-onna (Japanese): A woman so dedicated to her career that she has no time to iron blouses and so resorts to dressing only in knitted tops.

Faire du leche-vitrines (French): Window-shopping; literally, to lick the windows.

Take me out to the "BAL" game...

I was reading this article and it reminded me of how important proofreading is:

Majestic Athletic, the company that created these jerseys, creates all of the jerseys for Major League Baseball. They issued an apology here. To avoid national embarrasement, make sure you have a trustworthy proofreader!

Announcement!

I know I know, this might not be complete blog material - but LinguaLinx has announced the formation of its newest division. This division specializes in content authoring. Think of your LSP as a partner - we can help you write your content from day one, making the translation process easier for us and saving you money. It's a win-win situation. For more information, click here:

LinguaLinx Announces Formation of GlobalScript™

German Business Culture

In business, it is important to understand the cultural differences that affect the way business is conducted between people from various countries. In order to make sure not to offend or misinterpret clients or partners, cultural sensitivity is critical. The World Business Culture website outlines the ins and outs of 39 countries from a business culture standpoint and can be a valuable tool when dealing with unfamiliar environments. Below is a sampling of some of the more important similarities and differences between the ways German companies tend to operate compared with American companies.

Check out these "top ten" German Culture rules. For more rules, go here.

Top Ten Business Culture Rules:

1. Companies tend to be run by technical experts rather than lawyers and accountants.
2. Companies tend to have a strictly hierarchical approach within which individuals' specific roles and responsibilities are tightly defined and compartmentalized.
3. This results in what appears to be a distant and cold demeanor.
4. People are expected to contribute to the debate when discussions touch their area of expertise.
5. The greatest amount of respect is due to the person with the greatest depth of technical merit. Therefore, education is highly prized.
6. Relationships between bosses and subordinates tend to appear somewhat formal.
7. Direct speaking is seen in Germany as a sign of respect and a fundamental in the search for the correct answer.
8. Fact is the important issue and personal emotions should not deflect the truth from being spoken.
9. The perceived arrogance is more a misinterpretation of direct speech.
10. Instructions need to be clear, precise and above all unambiguous.

By Anthony Thornton, Intern Extraordinaire.

April Fool's Day treat

I found this blog called "Speak Media Blog" by JA Jones Consulting and today's post is about incorrectly translated marketing campaigns. I don't want to beat a dead horse (we've all heard these translation blunders), but I did want to post a few of my favorites:


1. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."


2. Pepsi's "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" was read as "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave" in Chinese by billions of potential consumers.


3. When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as they did in the U.S., with the beautiful Caucasian baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside because most people can't read.




For more, click here.


Happy April Fools Day!

DTP and Translation Memory

A couple weeks ago, Bill Kelts in Production wrote an introduction to Translation Memory (TM). With this post, I'd like to get into how TM affects your project on the publishing side.

Let's say we translated your sporting goods catalog last year. Here is how your top-selling product looked back then:


This year, however, you revamped the layout a bit and wound up with this:


Shouldn't matter, right? It's the same text, and it's already been translated, so we'll have 100% consistency, right? Not so fast!

How did your artist execute this runaround effect? Let's start by looking at last year's version, with all the layout marks visible in InDesign:


And this year?


Maybe the basketball graphic didn't have a proper clipping path embedded; maybe InDesign's "wrap to object" feature wasn't accurate enough; or maybe the person who did the layout doesn't know what either of those two terms even mean. Whatever the case, a TM tool does not perceive these as being the same sentences. In fact, they are so different the text in them won't even show up as partially leveragable "fuzzy matches," but as completely new text...potentially to be charged to you at the unique word rate.

Here's how the original and the altered text blocks look to a translation tool:


We went from one complete paragraph to 12 segments - with no text being recognized as repetitive or a close (fuzzy) match to text already in the TM. Repeat this problem throughout a 24-page catalog, and you've lost a lot of time and money. There is also a high risk of inconsistency between last year's catalog and this year's, which increases QA and revision time.

We in LinguaLinx's DTP department do everything we can to clean up files before they are run through the text-extract and translation process, but this takes time and adds production hours (and dollars) to the project.

In subsequent posts, I will address additional specific examples, as well as general strategies for creating localization-friendly layouts in InDesign and QuarkXpress.

Travel and translation

For some, traveling can be can be more hassle than relaxing escape - especially for those who don’t speak the language of the country they’re visiting. This can make even something as simple as asking for a restroom or bus station very confusing and intimidating.

In the U.S. alone more than 3 million citizens speak a language other than English, according to the 2000 Census. Think of all the untapped marketing resources! All that buying power being trapped by a language barrier! Translating and localizing travel materials can increase your audience; in this economic climate, who doesn’t need a larger audience?

This article by hotelmag.com gives tips for companies on tapping into the hospitality industry's revenue potential. The most important piece of advice they give is this:

“It is important to hire a reputable translation company that understands the semantics and nuances of different languages, specifically the language of your target country.”

Just remember, regardless of the industry or language, marketing materials should never offend the population you're trying to reach.

What is th@ called?

In the translation industry, consistency of terminology within a document is a desirable characteristic. To achieve a translation with the same consistency of terms/phrases that are important to one’s business, company, or institution, the source document should have uniformity as well.

However, as a lover of words, I appreciate how we as speakers and how language itself seem to resist uniformity. Take, for example, the multiplicity of words used for the @ symbol, found in everyone's email address.

English alone has many words for this symbol, including “atmark” or “commercial at,” terms that some have observed lack the romance or at least the visual provocation of @’s name in other languages:

In Italian, “chiocciola” (little snail)
In Dutch, “aperstaart” (monkey’s tail)
In Swedish, “snabel-a” (‘a’ with an elephant’s trunk) or “kanelbulle” (Swedish equivalent to a Chelsea bun)
In German, “eine Klammeraffe” (a clinging monkey)
In Yiddish, a strudel
In Finnish, a monkey’s tail
In Greek, a little duck
In Russian, a little dog

Some say it should be called the “ampersat,” to follow suit with & or “ampersand.” Others simply refer to it as the “at” sign, which is straightforward enough and gives a clue to its use over its appearance, but in my opinion is a bit banal. Other names cited in the Free Online Dictionary of Computing include: rare, each, vortex, whorl, intercal, whirlpool, cyclone, snail, ape, cat, rose, cabbage, amphora…

Certainly, when it comes to translation, consistent terms/phrases are desirable and necessary. However, if the @ symbol is any model, the immense variety and creativity of word options in language can present a powerful force.

Thanks to the “Odds and Ends” chapter in Word Watching by Julian Burnside for much of this information. See the on-line discussion and more words for @ on guardian.co.uk by clicking here.

Learn language

This blog is chock full of links for both learning and teaching languages (including English), many of them free. You can connect to language learning podcasts, social language learning networks (the modern pen pal), study-abroad programs, software applications for specific languages, etc. Of course, we recommend a “buyer beware” stance if using the page with links to free online translation!

On the topic of irony

i·ro·ny (ī'rə-nē, ī'ər-) (definition by answers.com)
n., pl. -nies.

1. The use of words to express something different from and often opposite to their literal meaning.

2. An expression or utterance marked by a deliberate contrast between apparent and intended meaning.

3. A literary style employing such contrasts for humorous or rhetorical effect.

4. Incongruity between what might be expected and what actually occurs.

5. An occurrence, result, or circumstance notable for such incongruity. See Usage Note at ironic.

6. Dramatic irony.

7. Socratic irony.

[French ironie, from Old French, from Latin īrōnīa, from Greek eirōneia, feigned ignorance, from eirōn, dissembler, probably from eirein, to say.]

***

In an earlier post, I criticized those who use incorrect grammar. Ironically, some very astute colleagues found several errors in my post. I apologize for that. In my excitement and haste I forgot to completely edit my work. My sincerest apologies to those who read it and thanks to those who caught the mistakes and corrected them.

Image by Cartoon Stock

The Linguists on PBS

PBS (Public Broadcast System) has announced a new documentary film The Linguists for airing on Friday, 2/27/09 on Albany channel 17/WMHT (at 2 am!). I heard a preview on the radio and excerpted this from the NPR website: “The efforts of linguists Greg Anderson and David Harrison to preserve languages on the brink of extinction are chronicled. Their journeys take them to Siberia to record Chulym, a dialect now spoken by fewer than 25 people; to India, where an expressive regional language called Sora is dying out; and to Bolivia to capture a language once spoken by healers to the Inca emperor.”

What is TM and why do I need one?

Translation memory (TM) is exactly what you think it is, in the simplest terms: A database that stores previously translated segments. This translation memory aids professional linguists in keeping production time low and consistency high.

The key word in this definition is segments. When the term "translation memory" is mentioned, often people get confused and think that every translated word is stored individually inside this memory. However, this is not the case. A TM will consist of translated segments, sentences, and paragraphs. Many people feel that translation memories were created for the sole purpose of reducing costs. This is also false. Although the use of TM can cause a slight decrease in price over time, translation memory was created to help maintain consistency and quality throughout documents. TM ensures that mission statements, slogans, and names will be translated consistently throughout all documents for a particular company.

When translating for the first time, do not be too concerned with the potential price benefit of translation memory. Instead, consider for which translations TM is best suited. Over time you will see the benefits. Remember that price alone should not dictate which translation provider you choose. Consider the quality translation that may be gained for virtually the same cost in comparison to not using TM. Translation memory is here to help you keep brand consistency. And that consistency is invaluable to your business.

What your spelling says about you

In any profession, correct spelling and grammar is important. None of us like to admit it but we all judge a book by its cover and in a world of emails, texting and blogging, our writing IS our cover. No one would send a potential employer a resume with typos. That's why the amount of emails and other materials that is sent with typos and misspellings is astounding.

Some of these grammatical faux pas are even reproduced on a grander scale. In this article, by Jen Carlson of the Gothamist website, she notes several examples within the New York City Transit system. Some of these mistakes are decades old! These errors are enough to leave anyone wondering where the proofreaders were on these projects.

Proofreaders, editors and quality assurance specialists are an integral part of ensuring that a quality product is presented to the world. After all, you are a brand – shouldn't you spell your name correctly?

photo by Wes VerHoeve

On communication

One of my QA/editing colleagues sent the quote below to the rest of the LinguaLinx QA/editing team:

“Oliver Wendell Holmes once said: ‘A word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanging, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.’ Those of us who use language as our principal tool of trade would do well to bear this in mind. The communication of an idea is not complete, and not useful, unless the meaning received corresponds with the meaning intended.”

from Word Watching by Julian Burnside

What is LinguaLinx?

LinguaLinx Language Solutions, Inc. is a full-service communications agency providing multilingual solutions to today’s leading corporations, law firms, non-profit organizations and government agencies. LinguaLinx offers an exceptional level of practical experience in the language industry. Founded in early 2002 to provide high-quality language solutions and informed, cost-effective client service at competitive rates, LinguaLinx leverages our management team’s collective experience to engage only the most qualified professionals who follow rigorous quality control procedures.

LinguaLinx is also the fasted growing translation company in the US, and the only translation company to land a spot on the 2008 Inc. 500 list, debuting at No. 311.