In this episode, we really let our inner language nerds shine as we talk about mistranslations! After sharing some personal encounters with bad translations on the metro, in restaurants, and in stores, we go on to talk about why good translation is so difficult to achieve. We even find out that poor translation has actually played a role in several conflict escalations in US history. Also, have you ever seen a totally different title of a book or movie and wondered how they could have “gotten it so wrong?” Well, the name may have been changed for good reason!
In Language News, it turns out learning a new language improves tolerance. While this may come as little surprise, the factors that lead to tolerance-building are fascinating. “Cultural competence” refers to becoming aware of different ways of doing things to one’s own, and “tolerance of ambiguity” relates to people’s ability to deal with unfamiliar situations. Read the full article here.
For our Lost in Translation segment, we have two great stories from Kate from Germany, who has been living in South Carolina for some years. We want to thank her so much for her stories and for sharing! To send us your own Lost in Translation moment, send it to our contact section where you can record yourself, or send a voice memo to: languagenerdsdoearth@gmail.com. We’d love to hear them!
Do you have any good mistranslations you’ve seen? Share them with us in the comments or tag us in them on Instagram!! We want them!
If you want to read more mistranslations, here are some good places:
And here’s Alonso Lerone, the youtuber that Rachel mentioned with great translation fails: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WPtWN7pyMzk . He’s seriously hilarious.
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