Whistling Pigs + Questions

7/31/2019 Whistling Pigs + Questions

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Lectura del ingls IV 8 semestre mayo 2012

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Whistling Pigs: German Adventures with Google Translate

by JALEES REHMAN1

Bilingual or multilingual friends can be quite annoying. Especially if youre stuck at a social

gathering with the ones who repeatedly mention their language skills and utter phrases such as

Well, if only you could read this novel in the original, you would have a much more profound

understanding of what the author wanted to express... Or the ones who like to cite French,

German and Arabic language newspaper articles and then remind you with a thinly veiled

pomposity that you may have a very narrow view of the world if you only rely on English-language

news.

However, this latter group is becoming more rare, possibly because a formidable foe is

taking the wind out of their sails: Google Translate. The excellent book Is That a Fish In Your Ear

by David Bellos has a chapter entitled The Adventure of Automated Language-TranslationMachines, which is especially thought-provoking, because it explains some key concepts about

Google Translate and the future of automated translation.

If a user enters a text into Google Translate, the linguistic search engine scours the

Internet for multilingual texts, ranging from official documents posted by the European Union to

articles and books that are available online in bilingual or multilingual versions. Using pattern

recognition algorithms and statistical methods, Google Translate matches words and phrases

contained in the user-entered text with those found in the large online repository of previously

translated texts.

The underlying assumption of Google Translate is that any new text requiring translation

contains phrases and word patterns that have been adequately translated in the existing online

collection of bilingual or multilingual texts. Anyone who has used Google Translate can appreciate

the success of this approach. While old-fashioned automated word-for-word translation often

resulted in garbled paragraphs, the pattern recognition method of Google Translate does a rather

impressive job of creating intelligible translations within seconds. For better or worse, this tool

permits news-addicts to follow international major news stories in real-time as they develop by

reading Google Translates renditions of local media, without having to wait for translations by

bothersome multilingual friends. Google Translate allowed us to receive up-to-date information

from the Japanese media as the Fukushima catastrophe in Japan was unfolding, and it also allowed

us to read newspaper articles and editorials written in Arabic by journalists in Egypt or Tunisia

during the Arab Spring.

1Jalees Rehman, MD is a German scientist and physician, and he is currently an Associate Professor of

Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In addition to his scientific work on stem

cells, he is also interested in language, culture and philosophy.http://thenextweb.com/google/2012/04/15/whistling-pigs-german-adventures-with-google-translate/


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I have often tested Google Translate by letting it translate newspaper articles from my

native German into English and found the translations to be remarkably accurate. The English

translations not only convey the gist of the original German article, but also include lucid and

accurate translations of details contained in the original articles. However, most of these German

newspaper articles are fairly functional and terse in terms of the vocabulary and phrases that are

used. The few times that Ive entered German essays or editorials written by linguistically gifted

authors into Google Translate, the outcomes have been rather comical, especially if the German

texts contained idiomatic expressions, puns or proverbs.

This may not come as a big surprise, because the efficacy of Google Translate is heavily

dependent on the presence of consistent patterns of translation in the bilingual text repository

that it accesses. Figurative expressions and idioms may not be that common in the existing

catalogue of Google Translate texts. Even if figurative or idiomatic expressions are present in the

Google Translate database, the translators may have used very context-specific methods to

translate the expressions. German idioms often reflect historical events or cultural traditions,

often reaching back to medieval history. It can be challenging to translate these idioms into alanguage with a different set of idioms which reflect a distinct history or culture. Some translators

may choose to translate an idiom in the German text with a matching idiom in the target language.

Other translators, on the other hand, may instead focus on translating the imagery or historical

associations evoked by the idiomatic expression. Inspired by Bellos book, I decided to choose

some of my favorite German idioms and see how Google Translate would translate them into

English.

The judgmental staff

German original: Du kannst doch nicht den Stab ber ihn brechen! Google Translate: You cannot break the rod of him!

The literal translation of the German phrase would be You cannot break the staff over him! and

is not too different from the one suggested by Google Translate. However, without the proper

historical context, the translation appears to be rather incomprehensible. The German idiom

refers to the medieval tradition of a Stab (staff or rod) being a symbol of power, especially in a

courtroom. A judge would hold the staff during a trial, but if the defendant was sentenced to

death, the judge broke the staff, possibly indicating that the defendants fate was now beyond the

judges hands. The expression is used today if someone pronounces a negative judgment orcondemns a fellow person. This expression is used to emphasize the importance of necessary

caution before making pre-emptive judgments that may have irreversible consequences. In our

contemporary culture and immediate access to online information, we are often tempted to judge

the words and actions of fellow humans. I like this German idiom because invoking the image of a

judge breaking a staff and pronouncing a death sentence may help promote the ideas of restraint

and introspection.


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Itchy ideas

German original: Du hast ihm einen Floh ins Ohr gesetzt. Google Translate: You have him put a flea in his ear.

Google does a fine job of providing a literal translation of this German idiom, but it does not

necessarily convey its meaning. The idiom is used to describe an idea or thought that we may have

heard and are unable to let go. I enjoy the image of the itching flea in the ear, because I often

obsess about certain ideas and I feel that I cannot easily disassociate from these itching

thoughts. I have occasionally seen the translation of this German idiom with the English expression

bee in the bonnet, however, the sensation of itching is perhaps a more intimate and painful

description of an obsession rather than the buzzing within a hat.

Illicit stupidity

German original: Er ist dmmer als die Polizei erlaubt. Google Translate: He is dumber than the police allowed.

Let us be very upfront about this: It is not (yet) a crime to be stupid in Germany. We currently do

not have Colonel Klink-type policemen patrolling the streets and administering IQ-alyzers to weed

out potential offenders, even though this idiom may suggest that we do. In everyday parlance, this

idiom expresses the frustration resulting from someones ignorant behavior or actions.

The joy of stealing horses

German original: Mit dir kann man Pferde stehlen! Google Translate: With you is a good sport!

The literal translation of this German phrase is I could steal horses with you, and it denotes great

friendship and trust. The punishment for being caught stealing horses in medieval times was quite

severe and one would only undertake such a task with a truly trustworthy friend. It also implies

that this particular friend is open to exciting adventures, and this may be the reason why Google

Translate suggests the good sport translation. However, good sport misses the core ideas of

deep trust and friendship that thieving comrades would need to plan the grand theft of horses.

The English expression thick as thieves may be a more suitable match.

It comes down to the sausage

German original: Jetzt geht es um die Wurst! Google Translate: Now it comes to sausages!


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When describing critical decisions, we Germans do not strive for world domination as some

Hollywood movies would like you to believe. The expression literally translates to Now it comes

down to the sausage! and it conjures up images of our not-so-elegant cuisine which primarily

consists of meat and potatoes. During traditional German county fairs and folk festivals, games

were held in which young men or boys would compete for the coveted Grand Prize: a large

sausage. The allure of this prize created this expression which refers to crucial life-defining

moments.

Whistling pigs

German original: Ich glaube, mein Schwein pfeift! Google Translate: I think my rocker!

This German idiom literally translates into I think my pig is whistling and is meant to signify

tremendous surprise (i.e. I am really, really surprised!), because most German pigs do not have ahabit of whistling. The Google Translate choice of rocker probably refers to the English

expression off my rocker and is an example of the search engines pattern recognition of this

German idiomatic expression, which may have been translated using the English language idiom

off my rocker in some texts. However, off my rocker may not be the best choice, because it

not only avoids the endearing images of whistling pigs but also because off my rocker tends to

have a connotation of transient insanity, confusion or craziness, more than a state of marked

surprise.

Mysterious Bohemian villages

German original: Fr mich sind das bhmische Drfer. Google Translate: For me, the Bohemian villages.

The literal translation of the German phrase above is These are Bohemian villages for me and

this German idiom is used to indicate a state of confusion, comparable to the English This sounds

like Greek to me. This phrase was popularized during the Thirty Year War (1618-1648) which

engulfed a large portion of Europe. Bohemia, which is now referred to as the Czech Republic, has

always had a long-standing multi-lingual tradition due to the linguistic and ethnic diversity of its

citizens. While Czech was the language of the majority population, German became a secondofficial language and was widely spoken in Bohemia. The Bohemian Revolt is considered to be one

of the triggers for the Thirty Year War. During this devastating war, armies marched through and

destroyed numerous European towns and villages. Large portions of the civilian population were

uprooted and forced to settle elsewhere. Amidst this chaos, many German-speaking soldiers or

refugees ended up in Bohemian villages which had signs that were printed only in Czech, and thus


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may have had difficulties deciphering them. This wartime upheaval probably gave birth to the

German idiom about mysterious or confusing Bohemian villages.

The yoke of the yolk

German original: Das ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei! Google Translate: Thats not exactly brilliant!

Once upon a time, people used to love egg yolks. The egg yolk was considered to be the most

nutritious and tastiest part of an egg. The German phrase Das ist nicht das Gelbe vom Ei! literally

means This is not the yellow of the egg and is used as a way to express dissatisfaction, because

the essence or the best part (i.e. the egg yolk) is missing. This idiom is still often used in

contemporary German, but I wonder whether future generations will retain it. Since the adverse

effects of high cholesterol on cardiovascular disease are highly publicized, many of us suppress our

desire for cholesterol-rich egg yolks and instead opt for egg white omelets with a side of organictofu.

Schadenfreude

Schadenfreude is a German word that probably needs no translation since it is commonly used by

English speakers. It refers to the Freude (joy or satisfaction) that one feels in light of someone

elses Schaden (damage or misfortune). It is by no means a purely German emotion. Most people

have probably experienced Schadenfreude at some point in their lives, but perhaps it takes

German bluntness to give this universal human emotion an actual name. I have to admit that I felt

quite a bit of Schadenfreude, when I saw that Google Translate was giving rather inadequate

English translations of the German idioms. I think my Schadenfreude about Google Translates

failings is based on the fact that it does such a good job with most texts that it makes people who

take some degree of pride in their bilingual or multilingual skills feel superfluous. When we see

that Google Translate struggles with figurative and idiomatic expressions because they elude the

statistical pattern recognition algorithms of Google Translate, it allows us to feel that human

translation skills arent obsolete yet.


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While Google Translates algorithms may be able to perform the grunt work of translation,

we still need quite a bit of human creativity to translate puns, jokes, puzzles and idioms. In its

present format, Google Translate offers multiple potential translations of phrases and words. The

English translations I chose for the German idioms above were among the most suitable options

that Google Translate offered, but even these were not able to properly convey the meanings of

the idioms. However, Google Translate is still in its infancy. It is very likely that its repository (or

that of other pattern recognition based automated translators) will be substantially expanded over

the course of the next years as increasing amounts of bilingual literary texts will be available

online. Once this repository incorporates a variety of translations of literary texts, it may become

more adept at offering appropriate translations of challenging idioms and figurative expressions.

My initial Schadenfreude about Google Translates failings is gradually being replaced by a

sense of anticipation in regards to the evolution of online translation. We often enjoy reading

translations of books, but we have to keep in mind that superb translations usually represent a

composite piece of literary art, co-created by the author of the original text and the translator.

When I compare multiple translations of an original text, I not only marvel at the creativity of therespective translators but I also appreciate how different translators interpret the original text by

way of choosing how to translate the original. Offering a gamut of potential translations for certain

phrases may give the reader a much better sense of what the author of the original text may have

wanted to convey.

Instead of mainly awaiting the evolution and improvement of automated translators such

as Google Translate, one could also consider exploring another possible avenue for online

translation: The creation of collaborative translation platforms. Such a translation platform could

build on the success of Wikipedia, where individual users are able to edit encyclopedia entries.

Challenging literary texts or essays that are rife with idioms, puns and humor would be excellent

candidate texts for a collaborative translation. An automated translator such as Google Translate

could create a rough draft which would serve as a starting point. The Wikipedia-like platform

would then allow multiple bilingual or multilingual users to edit the translations, ideally offering

multiple translations of the more challenging expressions and phrases. As with Wikipedia, these

collaborative translations would be performed on a volunteer basis. Original texts that are either

in the public domain or are freely accessible to the public would be very well suited for such a

platform, and the collaborative translations could be made available under a Creative Commons

License. Such an integration of automated translation and collaboration between numerous users

would likely create a plethora of translations of beloved literary texts.


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Whistling Pigs: German Adventures with Google Translate

1. What is the underlying assumption of Google Translate?2. What are the advantages of Google Translate regarding news stories?3. According to the author, what kinds of texts are translated successfully from German into

English by Google Translate?

4. What kind of expressions are lacking in Google Translates resources?5. Why does the German idiom regarding the judge and the staff appeal to Rehman?6. Explain the following German idioms which have been translated into English by Google

Translate. Give equivalents in Spanish where possible:

You have him put a flea in his ear With you is a good sport! I think my rocker For me, the Bohemian villages

7. What is Schadenfreude?8. What does an excellent literary translation represent, according to Rehman?9. Describe Rehmans collaborative translation platform proposal.10.Find words or phrases in the text with meanings similar to:

dreadful enemy to carry out

confused enduring

annoying tumult

play on words range

discourse widespread

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Whistling Pigs + Questions