Lost In The Translation

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I have been in the process of moving some of my email from an old address to one I check every day, and eliminating subscriptions to newsletters I no longer read, etc. Today in my inbox was an invitation from my old internet marketing friend, Beth Schmillen, to "stumble" a website called "Lost in Translation."

As a linguistics minor, I have never lost my love of the mechanics of language, or my fascination with the relationship between biology and the human ability to speak different languages. As an internet marketer who has many team members from other countries, I have struggled for years trying to make use of inadequate translation software trying to communicate the language of my industry. Let's face it, network marketing has its own language, and the concepts often are lost in the translation.

Back in the '90s, many of my international team members did not speak English. Now translation software is usually not needed. Most of my international team members speak flawless English - it is mostly the Americans who cannot speak English.

dude hahah u r kiddin me yo i know how to transl8

No doubt.


I wrote about translation software in this space a few years ago in an article called International Trafficking and My 15 Minutes of Fame, which also sports the above screenshot of my blog in Korean!

But this website that Beth sent me is even funnier, because it enables you to enter an English phrase and translate it  back and forth from English to other languages and back - usually giving you a totally incomprehensible version of what you originally entered.

Kind of like the old game "Telephone" we played when I was a kid, where you had a line of kids and whispered something into the ear of each one in turn, and ending up with hilarious results at the end.

For instance,  "what goes up, must come down" became "the iron and steel industry of the increase must consider."  What?

Here's how:

Original English Text:
what goes up, must come down
Translated to Japanese:
上がる何が、来なければな らない
Translated back to English:
Something which rises must come,
Translated to Chinese:
上升的事必须来，
Translated back to English:
The rise matter must come,
Translated to French:
La matière d'élévation doit venir,
Translated back to English:
The matter of rise must come,
Translated to German:
Der Stoff des Anstiegs muss kommen,
Translated back to English:
The material of the rise must come,
Translated to Italian:
Il materiale dell'aumento deve venire,
Translated back to English:
The material of the increase must come,
Translated to Portuguese:
O material do aumento deve vir,
Translated back to English:
The material of the increase must see,
Translated to Spanish:
El material del aumento debe considerar,
Translated back to English:
The material of the increase must consider,
Translated to French:
Le matériel de l'augmentation doit considérer,
Translated back to English:
The hardware of the increase must consider,
Translated to German:
Die Hardware der Zunahme muss betrachten,
Translated back to English:
The hardware of the increase must regard,
Translated to Italian:
Il hardware dell'aumento deve considerare,
Translated back to English:
The hardware of the increase must consider,
Translated to Portuguese:
A ferragem do aumento deve considerar,
Translated back to English:
The ironwork of the increase must consider,
Translated to Spanish:
La industria siderúrgica del aumento debe considerar,
Translated back to English:
The iron and steel industry of the increase must consider,

In all fairness, this translation is powered by the venerable "Babelfish" - which was around in the '90s and has been supplanted by other better translation engines.  But it is still hilarious.  Visit the site and put in your own phrase and see what you come up with.

What has been your experience, if any, with translation software?  Do you have a recommendation?

PS - If you have not spent any time on Stumbleupon, block out a couple of hours because you never know where you will end up.  Very addictive!