Hammie said:
I dare you to find me any language where onion and umbrella are the same word.
who says they have to be
No, sorry, they're not.
Let's have some fun translating that with some translation software, shall we?
English: "I'd like a cheesburger, no onion."
Japanese: "チーズバーガーがたいないタマネギ。"
English: "たいない onion cheese."
Wow, that didn't make much sense. Let's try another.
English: Do you have this in a size 10?
Japanese: これは 10 でサイズありますか
English: This is the size in 10?
Admittedly still technically understandable, but still a problem! Let's try the last one, shall we?
English: Twenty dollars on pump 5.
Japanese: $ 20 5。ポンプ
English: $ 20 5. Pump
Oh my, that totally destroyed the syntax! Let's try something a bit more complicated and more useful!
English: Excuse me, I am lost. Where is the post office, I want to send a letter.
Japanese: 私は残念、私は失われる。郵便書簡を送りたいどこ私。
English: I'm sorry, I'm lost. Where you want to send a letter-I.
Not only did it lose the entire destination, it lost the subject AND mangled the grammar! Wow, such wonderful things these translation programs are!
To further drive the point home, let's take a classic piece of literature, Hamlet, and translate a piece!
Original:
To be, or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis Nobler in the mind to suffer
The Slings and Arrows of outrageous Fortune,
Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles,
And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep
No more; and by a sleep, to say we end
The heart-ache, and the thousand Natural shocks
That Flesh is heir to? 'Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wished. To die to sleep,
To sleep, perchance to Dream; Ay, there's the rub,
For in that sleep of death, what dreams may come,
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil,
Must give us pause. There's the respect
That makes Calamity of so long life
With the 'help' of translation software (English-spanish-english):
To be or not to be, that one is the question; If ' tis more noble in the head to undergo the slings and you shoot with an arrow of the indignante fortune, Or to take the arms against a sea from hardships, and being been against, to finish those. In order to die, to dream; Not over; and by a dream to say we were finished the pain and the thousand natural shocks that meat is the heir - ' tis a consumation devoutly to being wish' d. In order to die, to sleep; In order to sleep, to perhaps dream. Ay, there' s the rubbing, stops in that dream of the death what dreams can come, when we have mixed ourselves of this mortal coil, we must occur stop. There' s the respect that so makes terrible of long life.
I'm so glad these translators are 99.9% correct!
Not correct, effective.
First, that's a double machine translation, so twice the potential for mistakes.
Second, If presented with 3 of those 4 results(not the cheeseburger one) and knowing that they're using translation software so clearly it won't be 100% accurate I could work out what they were asking.
Oh, and for the 4th one, I'd bring them the picture menu that McDonalds has for illiterate people.
Edit: also, try the same for French, German, and Spanish.
My point is still illustrated. Your 'solution' is not a solution.
Hammie said:
picture menu that McDonalds has for illiterate people.
Which country has this?
As someone who speaks a little bit of Japanese, I can vouch that example 1 was translated from E to J passably enough, 2 was pretty good, 3 and 4 were both pretty much completely butchered. All were incorrect to some degree, however, which undoubtedly made the translation back to E that much worse.
Edit: Holy balls, ninja'd three times (4 if you count the edit to Blaz's post).
Edit edit: And the original English sentences were not entirely grammatically correct, either, which is part of why depending on translation software is fundamentally wrongheaded, unless you can not only guarantee that you are grammatically correct, but that person you're interacting with will respond in kind.
Raiden_Gekkou said:
Which country has this?
Uhh, the US, it's required by Corporate McDonalds.
Sadly the majority of the minimum wage slaves at the restaurant don't know that.
I did when I worked there though, and we had them at all 4 different restaurants I worked at.
Raiden_Gekkou said:
Which country has this?
retardia
ikdind said:
As someone who speaks a little bit of Japanese, I can vouch that example 1 was translated from E to J passably enough, 2 was pretty good, 3 and 4 were both pretty much completely butchered. All were incorrect to some degree, however, which undoubtedly made the translation back to E that much worse.Edit: Holy balls, ninja'd three times (4 if you count the edit to Blaz's post).
5 times, I edited my post as well.
Hammie said:
5 times, I edited my post as well.
I think that means everyone should stop, take a deep breath, count to 10, and only then consider whether this is worth continuing to bicker about.
I'll start first.
ikdind said:
I think that means everyone should stop, take a deep breath, count to 10, and only then consider whether this is worth continuing to bicker about.I'll start first.
See, this could have ended long ago if Hammie and Raiden Gekkou didn't bicker on like old women about 'OH MUH FREEDOMZ'. I stepped in to end it.
tl;dr: you can't even comprehend how not-mad I am
For those curious:
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-rG2yBDDhrCc/T-_NKot7-jI/AAAAAAAAFqQ/DabSvkDRhAY/s1600/braille.jpg
Those are (supposed to be) in every McDonalds posted by the front counter and the drive through.
Blaz's Hamlet translation reminds me of another silly use of software.
Apparently A Doll's House is all about Nora.
Nora. Nora. Nora. Nora. Nora. Nora. Nora! Nora. Nora. Nora.
Aurali said:
retardia
I was going to say Faggotronia, but they're neighboring contries, and it'd make sense for them both to have it.
Autosummarize:
The Kama Sutra of Vatsyayana
by Vatsyayana
MEN. WOMEN. MEN. WOMEN.
MEN. WOMEN. MEN. WOMEN.
Learned men.
Young men
Bueno.
I just spent two days in Chicago, and a huge amount of people there speak other languages primarily. I don't think I really met any employees (cashiers, bus drivers, etc.) that spoke it well. And walking down the street, there's almost as many people not speaking English as there are speaking English.
So, like, how did this thread manage to get derailed to social, historical, economical and political issues of the USA within the first few comments?
Anyway, @OP. Around here English is a dominating foreign language. Pretty much everyone <30 can speak/understand it at least slightly. Although I have to admit that a very small percentage speaks it very fluently and have high comprehension skills. Also, most technology related terms are of English origin (linguists are trying to change that but everyone's resisting because the terms they thought up are fucking stupid), so yeah , it's quite a big influence. :P
I find the influence of the English language extremely positive, really. With the widespread use of it all around the world (well , mostly Europe), it's probably the baby steps towards an universal language on Earth, which would be amazing to have.
Also, I wouldn't say English is a hard language to learn (I might be biased on this subject), especially when you see/hear the language absolutely everywhere: TV, movies, food etc. I pretty much learned English just by watching cartoons as a kid. :| I mean fuck , I find my own language way harder than English.
Did you know that if you go through the drive-thru at McDonalds and ask for a Braille menu, they'll give you one?
AbsebaroKoon said:
*facepalms* this thread is... A language on its own.
of*
>:3
AbsebaroKoon said:
On is correct too.*butthurt*
...you're right. We'll never speak of this again. *shame*
probably a good idea to learn how to speak english...
Blaziken said:
Do you not know what an opinion is?
"But it was an opinion" is not a defense for a closed minded, ignorant and arrogant argument.
gotta_go_fast said:
"But it was an opinion" is not a defense for a closed minded, ignorant and arrogant argument.
I wasn't making an argument, kid. If I was making an argument there'd be sources.
Hammie said:
probably a good idea to learn how to speak english...
so fahny joek
Hammie
Privileged10 months ago
I dare you to find me any language where onion and umbrella are the same word.