If you've ever hit the Google Translate button to read a website that was published in a non-English language, then you know how crazy the results can be.
When I needed a few Spanish phrases in Viking Warrior Rebel, I first used an online translator. But after running the result through a different translator back to English--and laughing hysterically for a while--I decided I better ask a real person. And even then I did a reverse translation through a second real person. The results were great and I'll rely on my Spanish-speaking friends again, I'm sure.
Lately however, I've had to relate on Google Translate to email with some Russian physics professors. As part of a Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program, they came to visit my college and we communicated through a real-person translator. I've visited Russia twice, but all I managed to pick up in terms of language was how to say "ice cream" and "peace." Not very useful when it comes to talking about science theories. During their visit, I really connected with two of the Russian professors and so we've been emailing each other about cool things to do in the classroom and how to encourage girls to choose science courses.
It's a slow but fun process of trying to parse out what my new friends really meant from the crazy sentence structures I get from Google. And I'm sure my peers over in Saint Petersburg are having some very good laughs when reading the mangled Russian version of my original English messages.
So far though, the results have not been as crazy as what The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon experienced when running song lyrics through Google Translate. Enjoy! :-)
When I needed a few Spanish phrases in Viking Warrior Rebel, I first used an online translator. But after running the result through a different translator back to English--and laughing hysterically for a while--I decided I better ask a real person. And even then I did a reverse translation through a second real person. The results were great and I'll rely on my Spanish-speaking friends again, I'm sure.
Lately however, I've had to relate on Google Translate to email with some Russian physics professors. As part of a Women in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) program, they came to visit my college and we communicated through a real-person translator. I've visited Russia twice, but all I managed to pick up in terms of language was how to say "ice cream" and "peace." Not very useful when it comes to talking about science theories. During their visit, I really connected with two of the Russian professors and so we've been emailing each other about cool things to do in the classroom and how to encourage girls to choose science courses.
It's a slow but fun process of trying to parse out what my new friends really meant from the crazy sentence structures I get from Google. And I'm sure my peers over in Saint Petersburg are having some very good laughs when reading the mangled Russian version of my original English messages.
So far though, the results have not been as crazy as what The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon experienced when running song lyrics through Google Translate. Enjoy! :-)
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Asa Maria Bradley grew up in Sweden surrounded by archaeology and history steeped in Norse mythology, which inspired her sexy modern-day Viking series. She now lives in the Pacific Northwest with a British husband and a rescue dog of indeterminate breed. Booklist attributed her writing with “nonstop action, satisfying romantic encounters, and intriguing world building.” Her debut book, Viking Warrior Rising, was a 2016 double RITA finalist and the follow-up, Viking Warrior Rebel, is a Romantic Times Book Reviews Reviewers’ Choice Award Nominee and a Booksellers Best Award finalist. Romantic Times Book Reviews described the book as “filled with action and passion from the first page until the last.”
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I am cracking up at that video! LOL Russian is a challenging language because they decline words differently than we do -- a word's function isn't determined by its position in the sentence but by its suffix or form. I studied that language for six semesters and the only thing I'm pretty sure I remember how to say is, "I love to talk to fruit." Best luck in the communication adventure!
ReplyDeleteDid the fruit ever answer back? :-)
ReplyDelete