The Mother of All Translation Errors

Last week, one of our translation clients asked if we did not feel threatened by automatic translation websites, which reminded me of my days at University, when our Computer Aided Translation lecturer explained that translation programmes were generally fine if you translate the same style of texts again and again and again (the most famous translation programme, Meteo, just translates weather reports). If we were ever worried, she said, as to whether computers would replace translators completely, we just had to type the phrase ‘pig pen’ into a computer and wait for the results. There is a very good reason why translation is an arts degree, as there is so much more to it than flicking through a dictionary. My interest in translation led me to read this article, from the BBC, about translated texts in North Korea, a society so closed that there are very few native speakers of English in the country to proofread the government-sanctioned English language translations of propaganda. The language used by the Pyongyang Times is, apparently representative of the language used in the street, where a Korean phrasebook for tourists contains a section of ‘useful phrases’, such as “The American Yankee is a wolf in sheep’s clothing”, and “the US imperialists are the greatest threat to humanity in the 20^th Century”

Here is a great example of different values placed on words, where in North Korea, often-used words like ‘war’ don’t even register with people, yet cause concern among their southern neighbours. The more we use a word, the less meaning it has. An example closer to our lives is the amount of sincerity (or lack of sincerity) put in the expression ‘have a nice day’, or equivalent, that servers use to indicate they have finished serving us. In business, there is the word ‘issue’ –a fantastic word which everybody understands means ‘definitely not a problem’.

The North Korean translations are a perfect example of cultural differences between languages changing the overall meaning and sentiment of the text. Aggressive language is used on an everyday basis in North Korea, which, by definition, reduces the sentiment of such language to everyday –in other words, because this kind of aggressive language is used regularly, we cannot take it to mean that somebody is actually aggressive. Another example of the cultural difference gap is in the speeches of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. The West is often critical of his speeches, accusing him of ‘sabre-rattling’. However, they make the first mistake of translation in not looking at who his target audience is. Certainly, he is not making his statements for the benefit of the Western media, but rather to his own people. Regardless of his political views, the language that Mr. Ahmadinejad uses is the language of a strong, proud, belligerent tribal leader –in essence, a perfect role model for a leader in Iran. The most famous quote of Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was just before the Gulf War in 1991, when the Western press quoted him as warning people to expect ‘The Mother of all Battles’. Again, the difference a bit of context makes in translation is enormous. Firstly, the phrase ‘the mother of all x’ is an Arabic idiom, meaning that something is very large (for example, you might say you have the mother of all headaches the morning after a party). Furthermore, Hussein’s quote was in a speech warning his own troops to expect the mother of all battles, which his audience would have understood as a reference to the Battle of al-Qadisiyyah in 636AD, which saw an Islamic Arab army conquer Persia, leading in effect to the birth of the Iraqi nation. Hussein’s statement was actually a rally cry to his own soldiers, meant to warn them that the battle that was coming would be hard, but was justified. Again, leaving politics aside (which makes the world a lot nicer!), we see what is really a good piece of speech-writing, aimed to inspire, taken out of context by the Western press and redefined as aggressive.

So when reading the Pyongyang Times, take into account that it is a translation of texts written for a different audience, and translated by non-native speakers, with old dictionaries, from a different culture, and remember that aggressive language may not be intentionally aggressive.

1,700 insults in six months is a bit strong, however, so we may assume that the South Korean president is not a favourite of the paper.

Cultural Awareness with fries, please!

There is a large difference between academic knowledge and intelligence, between theory and practice. A reasonably bright child will be able to explain how to drive a bus, but I wouldn't get on a bus that had a child as its driver! Society protects itself by placing age limits on doing certain things -for example only people over the age of eighteen can drive a car. Qualifications and procedures also prevent people from doing things they shouldn't -For example, only qualified surgeons working at a particular hospital can performa surgical operation.
In business, however, the childish and incompetent are free to do what they want, with only heirarchy and internal procedures stopping them. The result is that quite often businesspeople have to make decisions that they are not qualified to make. For this reason, we prefer it when intelligent people with some kind of experience are in decision-making positions. Sometimes, though, especially when a business is doing something new, the decision-maker has to use her or his own judgement. Because there is no heirarchy or procedure in place to control, the person must make a decision and then see what happens. Sometimes the results are quite unexpected. Hoover's famous free flights fiasco, or the famous Mitsubishi Pajero example come instantly to mind. However, the latest example is really quite upsetting as far as executive thinking -or lack of thinking- goes.
In the 'Global Market', local marketing is quite important, to show that, although a company is a multinational conglomerate, it still thinks about the locals. Good examples of this are McDonalds, who even ditched their trademark red colour to use a blue sign in Israel to show that the restaurants serve kosher meals, and Canal+, who finance so many programmes and films in each of the countries it operates in, the locls often forget it is actually a French company. A very bad example has been made by Burger King, who wanted to advertise its Texican Whopper, and chose a symbol of success and wealth to promote it. Their choice? the Hindu deity Lakshmi, goddess of Wealth and Beauty. At no stage of the marketing and advertising project did anybody involved point out the fact that beef is forbidden in Hinduism.
The Texican whopper includes an all-beef patty, a beef chilli slice, and egg-based Cajun mayonnaise -all of which are forbidden by Hinduism. Displaying one of the religion's most popular deities about to eat this unholy trinity of products is sacrilege.
The advertisement ran in Spain, with the slogan "La merienda es sagrada" -the snack is sacred.
Hindus around the world protested, and Burger King quickly removed the ad and apologised, stating that it was not their intention to offend anyone.
They have also recently offended Mexico with an advert featuring a dwarf, a cowboy, a mask and a Mexican flag.
Perhaps for the executives at Burger King, it is time to think in a new area, and make the decision to change the advertising company?

Left where the lights used to be

I spent last weekend visiting family outside Krakow, and wanted to drive to the local bus station. I asked my host for directions, and he started to explain. "Get onto the Katowice road," he started, obviously assuming that I knew how to get from his house onto the Katowice road, "and drive on straight, and keep driving on straight. You'll start passing Real on the right." I wondered if he meant the only Real I know in the area. "Is that the Real in M1?" "Yes, that's the one! Then you turn left" My host's wife interjected "At the set of traffic lights" "Yes," agreed my host, "turn left at the traffic lights. Then you drive straight, and you start driving uphill, then you drive straight to the top of the hill, and then you start to drive downhill, and you drive downhill, and you drive straight, until you come to a large crossing, quite a large crossing, at the local stadium. There is a large taxi rank beside the stadium, too." I summarized "So, I go left at M1, and then go straight on to the large crossing at the stadium." "Yes, and then you go straight on," he continued , "and keep going straight on, until you get to a roundabout" I was surprised at what came next "...and then you turn right. Then you take the second left, which is about 200 metres after the first" -he never mentioned how far from the roundabout the first left was- " and drive straight on. And drive straight on until you get to the end of the street, and then turn right, and the bus station is on the left."
My host had used a description that was a million metaphorical miles from the description I would have used ("Left at M1, right at the roundabout, and take the second left, then the bus station is the next left."), and I remembered the old joke about an Irishman giving directions (go down to where the old tree used to be, and then you'll come to a large white house. Ignore that, and go on until you come to a field where Paddy sometimes leaves the cows...).
I read once that, if you ask a woman where the mustard is, the likelihood is that she will explain that it is behind the butter, and below the cold meats, in front of the mayonnaise. A man will probably tell you it is on the second shelf from the top, on the left. Men generally explain with coordinates, along with the philosophy of 'A place for everything, and everything in its place' Women use landmarks and reference points, seeing the world and everything in it as being related to each other.
What is interesting is that this is not news to anyone. We always complain that someone gives directions in a certain, specific way. 'He just gives the street names', 'She has to repeat every important detail twice', 'He gives the direction at every crossing, whether you go left, right or straight' Why not use this information to you advantage in the future? If someone always gives only street names when giving directions, then the best way to give him directions is not to tell him which landmark to look out for, but to tell him which streets to use. If someone reports every important detail twice, then he will understand something is important to you if you repeat it twice. I, for one, will give directions to my host in the clearest way ossible, with as many details as I can give. Why? He has already shown that this is the way he analyses and remembers directions.
Get into the habit of doing this, and you will find yourself automatically listening better to people giving directions. The end result is you will get lost less, and people will appreciate your directions.

Michael Jackson's Death: A Historic Event -in Communication

Michael Jackson passed away, and for about three days, this was the ost important event in the world. At least it was the most important event in the news. Of course, in this day and age, the media are less concerned with politics, and more concerned with celebrities. Recently, 100 years of a national newspaper have been made available online, and the early editions have whole transcripts of debates from the House of Commons. Of course, people are still interested in the workings of government and the national and intenational economy, but if one compares the content of a newspaper today with the contect of a newspaper of the early 20th century, it is difficult to find so much gossip and descriptions of new celebrity couples from the earlier paper. What has changed in society? Well, society has changed. A wider demographic can read now, and they also have the money and time to buy material to read. The press must cater to wider tastes.
A bigger sign of social behaviour for me can be seen in how society reacted to the death of Michael Jackson. When Lady Diana (Queen of Hearts) died, thousands of people collected around Buckingham Palace to leave flowers and console each other over the passing of their icon. Within hours of Jackson's death, hundreds of facebook groups had been started to commemorate the King of Pop and to share the grief. Now, setting up a group on a social website is the equivalent of taking time off work and travelling to a focal grieving point to lay a wreath (I'm sure somebody has written a 'lay flowers on MJ's tomb' application for facebook already!) . Facebook and other similar social networking sites are not so much a sign of the times, more a sign of the people. This is what people want to do in their free time. We have alread had people meeting and marrying over the internet. People grieve through the internet. Although the Catholic Church officially opposes it, people with guilty consciences can confess online, too. It seems there is nothing we don't prefer to do online. If this is just another sign of the death of face-to-face contact between real, living people, then I'll meet you in the online grieving site.

Just find an English-speaking friend, and ask...

Every now and again, a new story comes along to be added to the great list of terrible brand names that have been used. Usually, the examples are given in business school case studies as warnings to double check everything.
The last example is of the Russian Gas concern, Gazprom, and their new joint venture with Nigeria's state oil company. The name of the new company is Nigaz.
Of course this is causing a lot of comment, and there were a number of articles looking at the fau pas. The deal between was supposed to show off the Kremlin's growing interest in Africa's energy reserves, and instead, it will be used to show how provincial businesspeople can be, and that it is very important to have a good grasp of English.
The mistake was first pointed out on the popular site twitter, (which I will definitely have to write about in the near future!), and before long, it had moved on to marketing website Brand Republic, and finally onto the Guardian website.
I wrote that it was a mistake, but is it a mistake? It is common practice in Eastern European languages to form a name by putting the first syllables of all the important words together (Some Polish building companies -budownictwo- in Krakow are called Krak-Bud, Budokrak, PolBud, Budopol, etc.)
Take the name of the country first -perhaps out of respect- and you have 'Ni'. Take the first syllable from the Russian company, 'Gaz', and you must get 'Nigaz'. Some people have laughed that President Medvedev didn't ask anyone what it might mean before announcing the company at a press conference in Nigeria, but who on the president's staff has such a role -Cultural Omniscient? Another question is why should he?
The word may be offensive in English, but here we have a company which has a final product that will be marketed in Nigeria, where the Nigerians were not upset by the word, and Russia, in whose language the word is not insulting.
And what about where people are proud of the name? I lived in Germany where the Real hypermarket chain had outsourced the butcher's section to a family company whose name was the surname of its founders. With every piece of steak I bought, I would receive a label with the price, and the friendly greeting "Vielen Dank, Fuck GmbH". What should you do if your name is offensive in another language?
I'm sure for every product that has a funny or taboo meaning in English, there are more English product names that have taboo or funny meanings in other languages.
For example, Osram lightbulbs sell their products with no shame in Poland, where the name means "I defecate all around it". There is also the famous story of Mistubishi's 4x4 vehicle, the Pajero ( a name in Spanish for someone who enjoys masturbating a lot), which some argue well defines the drivers of these vehicles! The car was renamed the Montero in some regions of the world. The fact that we see these multimillion dollar concerens making mistakes like this is, for some reason, comforting. It gives us the feeling that everyone makes mistakes, and we aren't so worried by it. I wanted to see if the president of the German meat merchant agreed with me, but when I put 'Fuck President" into Google, a lot of websites about George W. Bush came up.