Importance of Language Skills

[Richard]

Some very good examples of the importance of acquiring and maintaing good language skills.

For me, the lesson was learned most when I was in Thailand. Thai was very difficult for me as it is a mellifluously multi-tonal language and I often had difficulty hearing and replicating the tonal variations. Fortunately, the Thais were wonderfully understanding and I could always tell when I'd gotten it wrong...from their laughing at me while attempting to politely correct me.

It also taught me another important lesson in learning foreign languages - the value of attempting to communicate with a people in their own language in an unassuming manner; IMO it's importance cannot be overly emphasized and I always found it went a long way in establishing critical relationships and understanding with HN partners.

Richard

9 Little Translation Mistakes That Caused Big Problems
TheWeek, 11 Feb 2013

The importance of good translation is most obvious when things go wrong Knowing how to speak two languages is not the same thing as knowing how to translate. Translation is a special skill that professionals work hard to develop. In their new book Found in Translation, professional translators Nataly Kelly and Jost Zetzsche give a spirited tour of the world of translation, full of fascinating stories about everything from volunteer text-message translators during the Haitian earthquake rescue effort, to the challenges of translation at the Olympics and the World Cup, to the personal friendships celebrities like Yao Ming and Marlee Matlin have with their translators. Here are nine examples from the book that show just how high-stakes the job of translation can be.

1. The $71 million word

In 1980, 18-year-old Willie Ramirez was admitted to a Florida hospital in a comatose state. His friends and family tried to describe his condition to the paramedics and doctors who treated him, but they only spoke Spanish. Translation was provided by a bilingual staff member who translated "intoxicado" as "intoxicated." A professional interpreter would have known that "intoxicado" is closer to "poisoned" and doesn't carry the same connotations of drug or alcohol use that "intoxicated" does. Ramirez's family believed he was suffering from food poisoning. He was actually suffering from an intracerebral hemorrhage, but the doctors proceeded as if he were suffering from an intentional drug overdose, which can lead to some of the symptoms he displayed. Because of the delay in treatment, Ramirez was left quadriplegic. He received a malpractice settlement of $71 million.

2. Your lusts for the future

When President Carter traveled to Poland in 1977, the State Department hired a Russian interpreter who knew Polish, but was not used to interpreting professionally in that language. Through the interpreter, Carter ended up saying things in Polish like "when I abandoned the United States" (for "when I left the United States") and "your lusts for the future" (for "your desires for the future"), mistakes that the media in both countries very much enjoyed.

3. We will bury you

At the height of the cold war, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev gave a speech in which he uttered a phrase that interpreted from Russian as "we will bury you." It was taken as chilling threat to bury the U.S. with a nuclear attack and escalated the tension between the U.S. and Russia. However, the translation was a bit too literal. The sense of the Russian phrase was more that "we will live to see you buried" or "we will outlast you." Still not exactly friendly, but not quite so threatening.

4. Do nothing

In 2009, HSBC bank had to launch a $10 million rebranding campaign to repair the damage done when its catchphrase "Assume Nothing" was mistranslated as "Do Nothing" in various countries.

5. Markets tumble

A panic in the world's foreign exchange market led the U.S. dollar to plunge in value after a poor English translation of an article by Guan Xiangdong of the China News Service zoomed around the internet. The original article was a casual, speculative overview of some financial reports, but the English translation sounded much more authoritative and concrete.

6. What's that on Moses's head?

St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators, studied Hebrew so he could translate the Old Testament into Latin from the original, instead of from the third century Greek version that everyone else had used. The resulting Latin version, which became the basis for hundreds of subsequent translations, contained a famous mistake. When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai his head has "radiance" or, in Hebrew, "karan." But Hebrew is written without the vowels, and St. Jerome had read "karan" as "keren," or "horned." From this error came centuries of paintings and sculptures of Moses with horns and the odd offensive stereotype of the horned Jew.

7. Chocolates for him

In the '50s, when chocolate companies began encouraging people to celebrate Valentine's Day in Japan, a mistranslation from one company gave people the idea that it was customary for women to give chocolate to men on the holiday. And that's what they do to this day. On February 14, the women of Japan shower their men with chocolate hearts and truffles, and on March 14 the men return the favor. An all-around win for the chocolate companies!

8. You must defeat Sheng Long

In the Japanese video game Street Fighter II, a character says, "if you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!" When this was translated from Japanese into English, the characters for "rising dragon" were interpreted as "Sheng Long." The same characters can have different readings in Japanese, and the translator, working on a list of phrases and unaware of the context, thought a new person was being introduced to the game. Gamers went crazy trying to figure out who this Sheng Long was and how they could defeat him. In 1992, as an April Fools Day joke, Electronic Gaming Monthly published elaborate and difficult to execute instructions for how to find Sheng Long. It wasn't revealed as a hoax until that December, after countless hours had no doubt been wasted.

9. Trouble at Waitangi

In 1840, the British government made a deal with the Maori chiefs in New Zealand. The Maori wanted protection from marauding convicts, sailors, and traders running roughshod through their villages, and the British wanted to expand their colonial holdings. The Treaty of Waitangi was drawn up and both sides signed it. But they were signing different documents. In the English version, the Maori were to "cede to Her Majesty the Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and powers of Sovereignty." In the Maori translation, composed by a British missionary, they were not to give up sovereignty, but governance. They thought they were getting a legal system, but keeping their right to rule themselves. That's not how it turned out, and generations later the issues around the meaning of this treaty are still being worked out.

http://theweek.com/article/index/239...d-big-problems

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Richard

[COLOR="Lime"]In 1980, 18-year-old Willie Ramirez was admitted to a Florida hospital in a comatose state. His friends and family tried to describe his condition to the paramedics and doctors who treated him, but they only spoke Spanish. Translation was provided by a bilingual staff member who translated "intoxicado" as "intoxicated." A professional interpreter would have known that "intoxicado" is closer to "poisoned" and doesn't carry the same connotations of drug or alcohol use that "intoxicated" does. Ramirez's family believed he was suffering from food poisoning. He was actually suffering from an intracerebral hemorrhage, but the doctors proceeded as if he were suffering from an intentional drug overdose, which can lead to some of the symptoms he displayed. Because of the delay in treatment, Ramirez was left quadriplegic. He received a malpractice settlement of $71 million.

Que embarazada!

[mark46th]

Oh Stewardess! I speak Jive!!

[longrange1947]

Richard, while I agree that language is important, I also believe that equally important is the ability to work through an interrupter. I firmly believe that SWC is missing out by not teaching this important skill due to total emphasis on language skills only.

While 7th group can get away with Spanish and a smattering of Portuguese, 1st Group and 10th Group has a vast array of languages that would be impossible to keep up with. While in 1st I was hit with Thai, Korean, Japanese, Hmong, a dialect in form the Philippines that I can't remember how to spell anymore and finally 6 months in the Marshall Islands. In the 10th, I was hit with Italian, Spanish, French, German, and Hungarian.


A friend had his face burned off by the SWC GO, for recommending that classes be taught working through terps. Heresy they said, learn the language they said. BS I said. Luckily it was my last year in SWC, I retired.

Sorry rant off. End of my two cents.

[Sdiver]

Originally Posted by mark46th

Oh Stewardess! I speak Jive!!

Perfect cup of coffee runied, along with my laptop.
Thanks.

[Richard]

Originally Posted by longrange1947

...while I agree that language is important, I also believe that equally important is the ability to work through an interrupter.

Wholeheartedly concur.

Working through an interpreter or multiple interpreters can be challenging and frustrating. I was teaching some med skills to a group of HN construction workers (in that part of the world, they worked for the HN govt and were armed with Thompson's to protect themselves from CT attack) and they were effin' up left and right. I chewed 'em out and knew enough of the language to know my interpreter was not conveying the message as forcefully as I wanted - so I had to jump on him for it, letting him know that if I was this angry, he had better let them know that I was that angry and not try to butter up to his fellow countrymen by making it sound as if I was not as upset over their lack of performance as I was. He then lit into them and, once we understood each other, we got along fine from then on. Thanks, Vong, wherever you may be.

I think the article points out very well what happens when you have to depend upon an interpreter, they get it wrong and you don't have the resources to know whether it's wrong or not, and you then have to live with the consequences anyway.

Anyway, good point LR.

Richard

[mark46th]

Good point Longrange- A good interpreter and knowing how to use him/her is vital. I remember the first time I gave a commo class to locals- I started off on a detailed plan that was perfect except for the part about how to turn on the radio... Fortunately, my interpreter brought it to my attention without making me look too foolish in front of the class...

[miclo18d]

Que embarazada!

Good one!

I was in Tacna, Peru setting up a DZ for my team and I had a 7th Grps rigger with me. We had hired a bus to transport the jumpers from the DZ to the airport to reboard the plane for another jump then they would fly back to Lima and we would do it again the next day.

We set up all the radios and markers and were just waiting for the MC-130 to check in, when the bus driver walked over with his daughter to check out what was going on. I must have been busy because he went to the rigger and asked, "Ella (my daughter) no se molesta?" Not being a Spanish speaker he started to freak out. He asked me, "I think this guy is accusing me of molesting his daughter. I started laughing and explained to him that though molest has a bad connotation in English it's alternate meaning in English and meaning in Spanish is to bother. The guy was asking him if his daughter was bothering him.




There are also the language course examples of misinterpretations...

The Ford Pinto did not sell well in Brazil; turns out pinto in Portugese meas small dick.

The Chevy Nova didn't sell we'll in South America. No va means it doesn't go.

And Gerber baby food didn't sell very well in foreign countries. Seems that illiterate populations use pictures to know what's in baby food. They didn't want to feed baby (pictured on the Gerber label) to their babies.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by Hatchet black

It is better to be smart enough to use a translator than dumb enough to say something that gets you in trouble.

Concur.

[longrange1947]

And remember, while embibing in alchol, your language abilities do not increase, contrary to some, and mine, beliefs.

There is a vast difference between Cuba Libre and Cuca Libre, especially when the bar tender is a female.

[Dusty]

Originally Posted by longrange1947

And remember, while embibing in alchol, your language abilities do not increase, contrary to some, and mine, beliefs.

There is a vast difference between Cuba Libre and Cuca Libre, especially when the bar tender is a female.

lol Like, "Que tetas creyendo?"

[ZonieDiver]

And remember, while embibing in alchol, your language abilities do not increase, contrary to some, and mine, beliefs.Yeah, but I can roll my Rs rrrrreally well after that 2nd cerveza.

But, I can rrrrroll my Rs a lot betterrrrr after that 2nd cerrrrveza.

[Richard]

I remember when my wife was learning Deutsch and went into a little market near Walkensee to get some sliced cheese and asked the owner for 500 grams of 'sliced cash register'.

She still gets angry if I mention it.

Richard

[MtnGoat]

Originally Posted by longrange1947

Richard, while I agree that language is important, I also believe that equally important is the ability to work through an interrupter. I firmly believe that SWC is missing out by not teaching this important skill due to total emphasis on language skills only.

I heard that SWC is covering working with a interrupter

[longrange1947]

Originally Posted by MtnGoat

I heard that SWC is covering working with a interrupter

After my post, I saw where a class is to be given during language training.
Questions are, will they do it, how in depth, will there be PE periods?

Too much has been glossed over in the name of "speaking", it has been forgotten that the actual norm is through at least one terp, and possibly more than one. It is a bitch to be a 3,3 in Spanish and have to give a class in Urdu, one terp understands English/Spanish but speaks Farsi while another speaks Farsi and Urdu. Go for it.

"Our" job is to teach, and overcome all obstacles to do so. The better prepared, the better the job will be accomplished.

Understanding that the "Our" means SF and not me as I am retired and don't do that stuff anymore.

Controlling a terp, making sure he is conveying EXACTLY what you are saying, with not only the meaning but with intent and intensity. Lots to be put forth for someone to be properly preped.

I was not when I first worked with terps in Thailand and Taiwan.