{"id":905,"date":"2013-06-07T15:30:10","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T14:30:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eurotalk.com\/blog\/?p=905"},"modified":"2013-06-07T15:30:10","modified_gmt":"2013-06-07T14:30:10","slug":"the-challenges-of-translation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/the-challenges-of-translation\/","title":{"rendered":"The challenges of translation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Over the last six months we\u2019ve had our new free app uTalk<\/a> translated into over 30 languages, and dealt with over 120 native language speakers who\u2019ve either translated or performed the scripts. Along the way we\u2019ve confronted many challenges\u00a0which really emphasise how one language can be ambiguous whilst another is precise, and vice versa.<\/p>\n

In English<\/strong>, for example, we can go to the shop and ask for a\u00a0pepper<\/em>\u00a0without having to specify the colour, or order a\u00a0boiled\u00a0egg<\/em>\u00a0without stating whether it should be hard or soft; we refer to\u00a0brothers<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0sisters<\/em>\u00a0without having to qualify their age; we talk about\u00a0grandparents<\/em>,\u00a0uncles<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0aunts<\/em>\u00a0without saying which side of the family they are on and, perhaps most infuriatingly for non-native speakers (those inclined towards a bit of juicy gossip), we can refer to\u00a0friends<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0partners<\/em>\u00a0without having to say whether they are male or female. We can be elusive and a little bit mysterious through the vagueness of the English tongue. This is not always the case in every language, and here are a few examples of what we\u2019ve learnt so far:<\/p>\n

\"Brother– In Vietnamese<\/strong>, you don\u2019t just have\u00a0a\u00a0brother<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0sister<\/em>: there is no general word. Instead, you specifically have an\u00a0older<\/em>\u00a0or\u00a0younger<\/em>\u00a0brother or\u00a0sister. In Basque<\/strong>, too, there is no generic word, but the difference depends on the gender of the speaker rather than age: my Mum\u2019s word for her brother (neba<\/em>) will be different to my Dad\u2019s word for his brother (anaia<\/em>).<\/p>\n

– Danish<\/strong> has two words for a wall, depending on whether it is an outdoor, brick-built wall or an interior wall.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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– In Polish<\/strong>, we debated the straightforward English phrase\u00a0He scores<\/em>\u00a0(a goal), which can be translated with a variety of terms depending primarily on whether he scores visibly, in the eyes of the spectators, or definitely, after verification from the referee.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

– Mandarin<\/strong> has two separate words for a\u00a0beach<\/em>, one for a seaside beach and one for a lakeside beach. It also has two words for\u00a0jellyfish<\/em>, depending on whether it is the living animal or the edible delicacy.<\/div>\n
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– The Romanians<\/strong> use two words for snow – one to describe the falling droplets, one to refer to the layer already on the ground.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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As well as these difficulties in trying to get different languages to correspond to each other, we\u2019ve come across some interesting stylistic issues which don\u2019t exist in English:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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– In languages such as Czech<\/strong> and Slovak<\/strong>, our translators worried over the best way to tell the time, since it is common to express twenty-five past two<\/em> as five to half past two<\/em>, a construction which may initially confuse learners who have never encountered it. (English speakers may also be surprised when they first learn the time in many Slavic languages, where quarter past four<\/em> is, literally, quarter of the fifth<\/em>, the implication being that we are in the fifth hour).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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– In Chichewa<\/strong>, our translators opted for entirely different and equally valid counting systems: one went for the traditional Chichewa way of counting based on the numbers 1 to 5, followed by increasingly complex and lengthy sums which require quick thinking and an aptitude for arithmetic in everyday transactions; the other opted for the commonly used English loan words- twente eiti<\/em> (28), faifi<\/em> (5) etc. Both systems are equally used, understood and widespread in Malawi.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"\"<\/a>– Our Honduran consultant objected slightly to the inclusion of the word\u00a0ketchup<\/em>\u00a0in the Latin American Spanish<\/strong> script, saying that\u00a0la salsa de tomate<\/em>\u00a0would be more appropriate in his country. But this clashed with our Peruvian consultant\u2019s advice, since\u00a0ketchup<\/em>\u00a0is a widespread word in Peru and the\u00a0salsa de tomate<\/em>\u00a0could refer to any other tomato-based sauce. Our Mexican translator chipped in that in Mexico\u00a0ketchup<\/em>\u00a0is indeed commonly used, though\u00a0catsup<\/em>\u00a0would be equally widespread\u2026 In the end, we settled on\u00a0ketchup<\/em>\u00a0as the most generally acceptable in the largest number of places.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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– In Polish<\/strong>, there is no good way to translate the phrases\u00a0at the top of the stairs<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0at the bottom of the stairs<\/em>: they would just say\u00a0on the stairs<\/em>\u00a0in both cases. Part of the reason for this is the strange repetition you get if you specify\u00a0at<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0on\u00a0<\/em>–\u00a0na<\/span>\u00a0g\u00f3rze\u00a0na<\/span>\u00a0schodach<\/em>. The same odd-sounding\u00a0repetition caused problems in the Spanish<\/strong> translation of\u00a0I\u2019m leaving tomorrow at eight in the morning<\/em>, since the words for\u00a0tomorrow<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0morning<\/em>\u00a0are identical, thus\u00a0Me marcho ma\u00f1ana a las ocho de la ma\u00f1ana<\/em>. It sounds so strange that people would prefer to leave out the first\u00a0ma\u00f1ana<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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These are just a few of the little points of interest we encounter on a regular basis in our translation project, and we\u2019re looking forward to finding more and sharing them with you!<\/p>\n

Nat<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>uTalk is now available from the App Store<\/a> – it’s free to download and includes basic words in 25 languages, with options to upgrade for more vocabulary.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the last six months we\u2019ve had our new free app uTalk translated into over 30 languages, and dealt with over 120 native language speakers who\u2019ve either translated or performed the scripts. Along the way we\u2019ve confronted many challenges\u00a0which really emphasise how one language can be ambiguous whilst another is precise, and vice versa. In … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[246,247,248,249,2,250,125,251,252,8,228,253,254],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/905\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/utalk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}