When I logged into Blogger today, my first thought was "They can NOT be serious about this."

About what, you ask? Well, about the word-for-word translation of everything, that's what.

For quite a while now, there's been buzz around that Blogger will be made available in different languages. I didn't think much about it. Ah, but I guess I should've braced myself for it. That was my fault, I suppose.

Whenever I use Google and it goes to Google.ph, I always wince when I see the Tagalog version. Don't get me wrong: I actually like — no, LOVE — my national tongue. But there are just some things that you don't translate. Being a freelance translator, I know how awkward (and sometimes simply WRONG) it is to take translation literally.

(I realize now that this post will appeal most to bilinguals. This might not have any effect at all on people who only speak English. Sorry.)

Translation is not just getting an English-"whatever language" dictionary and typing in what the almighty book says. A word can be translated in so many ways depending on context. There are some instances where literal translations of things are out of whack, and there are some cases where you just shouldn't translate at all.

For example— May I cite an example? Thank you. For example, take the "Collapse comments" link.
As shown in my cropped screenshot, it says "Gibain ang mga comment". So, yeah, "gibain" DOES mean "collapse". It also means "destroy". And, you know what? They should NOT have used it here because a Tagalog-only speaker would think that this link will DELETE the comments. You know what they should've used? A simple "itago" (meaning "hide") would've sufficed. But, noooooo~ they decided to stick with the dictionary definition of collapse. Rargh.

I won't go into great lengths of pointing out the many...errr...inappropriate translations... Like it should be "4 na komentaryo". Also, "komentaryo" (with one m! ONE!) actually means "commentary", which is different from a simple comment. A better word would be "puna", which was used in the Posts List. Um. Yeah. I'll stop there. I'll spare you from "Mobile Mga Kasangkapan" for "Mobile Devices".

Things are lost in translation, and that's why it should be used with care. Sorry for being so rant-y about this, but I'm just a bit of a Nazi when it comes to English-Filipino translation (and the other way around). The current setting makes me shrudder. I'm serious.

One might say, "Ah, but Sarah, what about those Filipinos who don't understand English?" You know what? With the current translation of Blogger, I doubt they'll undersand that, either.

This post is not written to discredit Google. This is not a hate post. As most of you know, I actually LOVE Google. And I honestly think that it's very thoughtful of Google to want to make their services available to non-English speakers. But still, I implore the translators: "ARGH get some help, man!" And if my guess is right, and Blogger had been translated by a computer program (or some other such thing), then I hope they fix it.

As for me, I'll just go and switch my language setting back to English. I'm sure other people will, too.

| ping real life » | Linkbuilding with Viral Icons » | Name Project - Batch 2 » | What class are you? » | blogs of influence » | iGoogle Teahouse Ghost Captured! » | Dark Chocolate and Chardonnay » | Revivals Galore » | guilty beauty love » | Viral Tags: food for your site's ranking »