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The dangers of machine translation

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Athel Cornish-Bowden

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May 4, 2012, 9:48:40 AM5/4/12
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There is a nice article here about what can happen if machines are used
too carelessly:
http://www.ara.cat/politica/Joseph-Mary-Pilgrim-personalitat-Govern_0_692330906.html

It's

in Catalan, but it's easy enough to get the main points. Otherwise try
http://fuckedtranslation.blogspot.com.es/


--
athel

Lanarcam

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May 4, 2012, 10:33:30 AM5/4/12
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On May 4, 3:48 pm, Athel Cornish-Bowden <athel...@yahoo.co.uk> wrote:
> There is a nice article here about what can happen if machines are used
> too carelessly:http://www.ara.cat/politica/Joseph-Mary-Pilgrim-personalitat-Govern_0...
>
> It's
>
> in Catalan, but it's easy enough to get the main points. Otherwise tryhttp://fuckedtranslation.blogspot.com.es/
>
Perhaps they will learn the value of a well translated text by a
native
speaker the way some companies heve learnt it when they tried
to brand products in foreign countries. I have a friend who worked
in a multinational company who sold industrial computers. They
had named one "Maxitron" *. They didn't know what it meant in
Québec, my friend told them about it but they didn't see the point.
The product was of course a failure.

* It reads "Mac citron" in Quebecois and evokes genitalia.

Athel Cornish-Bowden

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May 4, 2012, 11:16:33 AM5/4/12
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Errors of that sort are not so easy to avoid even if you make the
effort. The trademark Exxon was created in 1973 to avoid various
problems with Esso, Enco and Humble in the USA (among them the fact
that they found out that "enco" is a termed used in Japan for a stalled
car). They surveyed all the world's languages and determined that xx
occurs only in Maltese, and that "exxon" doesn't mean anything in
Maltese. They thought they were safe, but it was only a short time
later that "exon" was coined as a word referring to the part of a gene
that is expressed (as opposed to an intron, which isn't). No great harm
was done to Exxon, but what if "exon" had been invented to mean
something improper?

Your example reminds me of GenItalia, which was (supposedly, but it's
probably apocryphal) the proposed name of a new Italian genetic
engineering company at the time when new companies with names like
Genentech were all the rage.

A better example is the Pajero model of car made by Mitsubishi, which
was supposedly based on a Spanish model, but in ignorance of the fact
that "pajero" means "wanker" in Spanish.


--
athel

Sh.Mandrake

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May 9, 2012, 5:18:19 AM5/9/12
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But the sport shoes "Con" are a commercial succes in France...

--
Hakuna matata,

Le Magicien

Sh.Mandrake

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May 9, 2012, 5:26:54 AM5/9/12
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Le 04/05/2012 16:33, Lanarcam a écrit :
But the sport shoes "Con" are a commercial succes in France...
I'm convinced that if the computer Maxitron had been good, it would have
been a succes too.

Lanarcam

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May 9, 2012, 6:54:56 AM5/9/12
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Not according to my friend who had worked for many years as a
technical engineer and knew well what a good industrial computer
was. He later worked as a commercial engineer in Quebec for six
years and experienced first-hand the effect the name had on
prospects. The first impression is often decisive.

Sh.Mandrake

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May 9, 2012, 7:19:21 AM5/9/12
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Le 09/05/2012 12:54, Lanarcam a écrit :
> Not according to my friend who had worked for many years as a
> technical engineer and knew well what a good industrial computer
> was. He later worked as a commercial engineer in Quebec for six
> years and experienced first-hand the effect the name had on
> prospects. The first impression is often decisive.

Does that make him an expert in shoe marketing?

Lanarcam

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May 9, 2012, 8:11:24 AM5/9/12
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Non, ni en commerce de choux, d'ailleurs ;)

JM

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May 9, 2012, 2:10:23 PM5/9/12
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Que diriez-vous si la camionnette "Coit" -- sans tréma, d'accord --
s'arrêtait en face de chez vous, voire même chez vous ?
http://www.coit.com/

J.

Sh.Mandrake

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May 10, 2012, 3:57:25 AM5/10/12
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Le 09/05/2012 20:10, JM a écrit :
> Que diriez-vous si la camionnette "Coit" -- sans tréma, d'accord --
> s'arrêtait en face de chez vous, voire même chez vous ?
> http://www.coit.com/

Nothing. I'd just smile. :)

Lanarcam

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May 10, 2012, 5:01:00 PM5/10/12
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Le 10/05/2012 09:57, Sh.Mandrake a écrit :
> Le 09/05/2012 20:10, JM a écrit :
>> Que diriez-vous si la camionnette "Coit" -- sans tréma, d'accord --
>> s'arrêtait en face de chez vous, voire même chez vous ?
>> http://www.coit.com/
>
> Nothing. I'd just smile. :)
>
Vous en resteriez coi, quoi.

Albert ARIBAUD

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May 11, 2012, 2:11:07 AM5/11/12
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Quoique...

Amicalement,
--
Albert.
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