But how well have Google done with Latin?

The indomitable Mary Beard takes aim at their translations in “I test-drive Google Latin”. Being a professor of classics at Cambridge University, she should know what she’s talking about. She starts by acknowledging her admiration for the hard work that such innovations must involve. The Google database even gets some plaudits for containing some well known quotes.

But matters go rapidly downhill when she tries out some free-form Latin:

Things started to go wrong pretty quickly when I typed in some baby Latin. “Servus est in villa” (and you couldnt get much simpler than that) comes out as “In the town is the servant of” (how come villa = town? and where has the “of” appeared from?).

To be fair, Google Translate is just doing what Google always said it would: applying statistical methods to attempt a gist of the text. This might or might not be comprehensible, but is rarely going to read like flowing prose. The problem occurs when people are so used to Google providing definitive answers, they mistake this for a well-rounded professional translation.

For instance, the machine translation doesn’t do an absolutely terrbile job on the Latin in the Google Blog announcement:

That language barriers be torn away and the knowledge of the world is made accessible and useful, translation systems of many languages of the nations were created by us. Today, we announce the first language translation system by which no native speakers now make use of: the Latin.

However, it’s hardly great copy – and you would think Google would have tidied up the back translation of their own announcement.

Finally, for those wondering, “timeo googletranslate et dona ferentes” is a pastiche of Virgil’s “timeo Danaos et dona ferentes”, which is often paraphrased in English as “Beware Greeks bearing gifts”. Interestingly, Google Translate mangles my version but is perfect with Virgil’s original, supporting Prof. Beard’s contention:

it isnt what I call “translation”; it’s a database of quotes.

I came across a useful online directory the other day, which I thought worth sharing. Now, directory sites have got a bad reputation over the years, often with good reason. Many are full of spam-like entries and are of little real use.

The Professional Web Design Directory is rather different. It is a helpful resource listing professional web designers who meet their knowledge guidelines. Rather than accepting all and sundry, the entries are checked by hand. What’s more, the listings have the facility for reviews from previous clients so you can learn from others’ experience.

What really caught my eye was the useful web design advice section. This has some good tips for both web designers and those looking for one. Topics range from “5 steps to find a good web designer” through to the more technical “Web designers who use GZIP create faster websites”!

Of course, for websites in languages other than English, WorldAccent offers a full range of website translation services. In fact, it was while I was reviewing our new pages on that service, that I came across the Professional Web Design Directory.

If you are considering getting yourself a website, don’t forget you also need to buy a domain name and get someone to host it. Some web designers will do this for you, but it’s often worth looking around for deals if you have a little technical competence.

Whether you are launching a new “must-read” site or sprucing up your existing pages with a redesign, good luck!

As regular readers will know, this day celebrating translation was established in 1991 by the Fédération Internationale des Traducteurs (International Federation of Translators). Our translation agency, WorldAccent, is proud to be a memeber of one of the federated bodies, the Institute of Translation & Interpreting. The date of 30 September was chosen as it is the feast day of St. Jerome (347-420 AD), patron saint of translators, interpreters and librarians. The day celebrates and promotes translation as an essential activity in contemporary society – but one which too often remains invisible and ignored.

This year’s theme partly celebrates the incredible diversity of language around the globe. As the Federation note in their press release for International Translation Day 2010:

“The estimated six to seven thousand languages spoken around the globe are the repository of our collective memory and intangible heritage. But the linguistic and cultural diversity they offer is under threat: 96% of these languages are spoken by only 4% of the world’s population and hundreds of them will soon be lost forever.”

With that “variety of voices”, the need for “translation quality” becomes clear:

“Translators, interpreters and terminologists, indispensable as mediators in interlingual and cultural contexts, have a special responsibility to help preserve multilingualism and promote smooth interaction among all the world’s languages. The burgeoning growth in information technologies, the widening reach of the Internet, the expansion of trade globally and ever-increasing scientific and cultural cooperation have undoubtedly enhanced the role of translators, interpreters and terminologists in the modern world and ushered in a ‘time of plenty’. This has in turn increased the burden of responsibility on language professionals: their work must meet exacting standards of accuracy and quality yet lose none of the nuances of the original language.”

Also of interest is an event taking place to mark this year’s International Translation Day in London. It is organised by English PEN, which promotes “literature as a means of greater understanding between cultures”. The event will focus on the future of literary translation, with speakers including Boyd Tonkin, Simon Winder, Michael Kelly, Kirsty Dunseath, Sarah Ardizzone and Mark Thwaite.

To celebrate this day we have produced a free e-card to download for yourself, or to send to friends and colleagues.

Download the International Translation Day 2010 greeting card as a PDF (288Kb).

“On Monday, the Radio-Canada website ran a story criticizing the practice, arguing many of the automatic translations were of poor quality and that RCMP divisions elsewhere in the country offer instant official translations.”

I’ve pointed out before that if you want to communicate well, you need a human translator. This is even more true on a website than elsewhere. Afterall, once you have made available the machine translation into umpteen languages, how do you know if it simply causes bemusement for foreign language readers. Or even worse, hilarity. The Mounties are now looking into hiring a human translator.

It seems when it comes to French translation, « Vous en avez pour votre argent » – you get what you pay for.

There’s a couple of funny examples but there is also an underlying serious point. If you want to communicate details and nuances of your services in a foreign language, the often rough and ready translation provided free online might not be good enough or, even worse, can make you a laughing stock.

There really is no substitute for professional translation services provided by a human being!

Yet all too often, translation is entrusted to someone who speaks the language “quite well”, or even “knows a bit of French”. Of all places, this truism jumped out at me once again while browsing for a pasta sauce. An elegantly designed box had the following English translation of the Italian cooking instruction:

To be charitable, perhaps this is a deliberately quaint piece of English, calculated to conjure stereotyped images of an Italian chef. It certainly makes a native English speaker stumble half way through the sentence, something that a quick (and inexpensive) professional Italian to English translation would have solved.

Either way, the sauce was delicious (tomato with bacon and speck in case you’re wondering).

Think carefully before entrusting your hard work to a home-brew translation or, if you’ll excuse the pun, you may find yourself jumping out of the frying pan and into the (bubbly) fire!

How Hilary Clinton must wish her advisors had taken that on board before they got her to present Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov with a big red button labelled with the Russian word “peregruzka”, meaning overcharged rather than reset.

Jokes and puns are notoriously difficult to translate into a foreign language. There is no guarantee that a clever play on words in English will work at all if translated literally. Even if the Clinton team had used the word they later claimed they were aiming for (“perezagruzka”), the joke would have been clumsy in Russian.

The other aspect that seems to have escaped those charged with making this button is that Russian is written in the Cyrillic alphabet. Of course, it is possible to transliterate Russian words using Roman script. But if you are making a good will gift for a foreign government, it would seem de rigueur to use their alphabet. We certainly would have been happy to provide Obama’s administration with a Russian typesetting service!

Having not had the help of a professional Russian translator, Clinton got herself into even deeper water when the mistake was pointed out. Lavrov pointed out (in fluent English), “This says ‘peregruzka’ which means overcharged” leading Clinton to joke in reply, “We won’t let you do that to us, I promise.” Err, no, Secretary of State, the word means overcharged in an electrical sense, not in the sense of charging too much money.

All of which goes to show, if you want to convey an important message in another language, check the wording with a native speaker or even better, engage the services of a professional translator who combines that linguistic knowledge with writing skills. Otherwise you might end up the butt of the joke.

Unfortunately for them, and to the hilarity of local Welsh speakers, the response was actually an automated “out of office” response.

As Dylan Iorwerth of Welsh-language magazine Golwg commented, “When they’re proofing signs, they should really use someone who speaks Welsh”.

We couldn’t agree more!

Some businesses would do well to note this. Even brand names are not exempt from the need to research thoroughly before breaking into a new market. For example, the Chinese translation of Coca Cola was initially printed as ‘Ke-kou-ke-la’, on account that it sounded similar to the original (this is known as transliteration). It transpired that ‘Ke-kou-ke-la’ actually meant either ‘bite the wax tadpole’ or ‘female horse stuffed with wax’, depending on the dialect.

Many versions of this cautionary tale abound on the internet. It was the result of a competition gone horribly wrong according to Chinese Wikipedia, with even Coca Cola’s own historian conceding there were issues with these early Chinese translations. After a more careful translation process, considering the meaning as well as the sounds of words, Coke came up with “Ko-kou-ko-le”, which translates, somewhat more appropriately, as “happiness in the mouth”.

One typical downfall for businesses attempting to span the international markets is flagged up in the Institute of Translation and Interpreting guide to successful translation [PDF]:

“Avoid culture-bound clichés. References to your national sport may well fall flat. Ditto literary/cultural metaphors. Tread carefully with references to parts of the human body, viewed differently by different cultures.”

This warning could have saved then-Prime Minister Tony Blair from an embarrassing cultural translation blunder in 1998, when he told a group of Japanese business men that the British Government intended to go “the full Monty” in terms of strengthening the UK economy. This cultural reference was met with blank faces: the film had not yet been released in Japan. Furthermore, the notion of the British Prime Minister stripping off to cheesy music is an image that would probably not rest easily with the hosts’ cultural sensitivities…

The problem with translation is that the term is all too often taken to mean literally translating word for word into the desired language – in reality some things will always be, in a somewhat cliché truth, “lost in translation”. It is only through professional translation that you can ensure that this loss is kept to a minimum. Professional translators keep up to date with terminology, jargon and colloquialisms across a variety of subjects.

What’s more, translation is a skill. It is not enough to be bilingual, just as speaking English doesn’t automatically make you a great copywriter (myself being an exception to the rule of course!). A good professional translation needs to be written gracefully and capture the real meaning of the source text.