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Relatedly, there was an unintentionally funny translation of Gmail in Hungarian, where it was supposed to say "You have no conversations in Trash", or something

by lkozma 6y ago

Relatedly, there was an unintentionally funny translation of Gmail in Hungarian, where it was supposed to say "You have no conversations in Trash", or something like that. The translation was technically correct, but it sounded very much like "No more talking in the trashcan!", which was hard to read without imagining someone shouting at a trashcan with a person inside it.

smnrchrds 6y ago
The Hungarian translator must have been a fan of Oscar the Grouch.
- johnisgood 6y ago
  It is quite common with Hungarian translators I have been told. Hungarian translations typically do not make sense given the context, especially when that context is anything IT related. It is like they are being given sentences to translate without telling them the context, and you get some funny translations.
  - howlgarnish 6y ago
    Yes, that's exactly how low-end translation works. You get an Excel sheet with two columns, one labeled "English" and the other "Hungarian" (or whatever), and you get paid some laughable rate per word.
    - BunsanSpace 6y ago
      When my work did it, we added another coloumn with "context/explanation" and had devs fluent in that language review the translation. still a few phrases came out awkward
  - toast0 6y ago
    > It is like they are being given sentences to translate without telling them the context This is a pretty common localization problem. Tooling doesn't always make it easy to share context with translators who are often contractors for outside agencies. Unfamiliar developers try to do string math instead of laying out full sentances to translate. People are surprised to find the same original sentence needs different translations on different screens. Of course, Google has lots of experience with localization, so should really have this down by now.
celsoazevedo 6y ago
Outlook's Portuguese translation uses the word "Lixo" (Trash/Garbage) for the "Spam" button. Sometimes people report emails as spam when they're trying to delete them.

by lkozma 6y ago

smnrchrds 6y ago

The Hungarian translator must have been a fan of Oscar the Grouch.

johnisgood 6y ago
It is quite common with Hungarian translators I have been told. Hungarian translations typically do not make sense given the context, especially when that context is anything IT related. It is like they are being given sentences to translate without telling them the context, and you get some funny translations.
- howlgarnish 6y ago
  Yes, that's exactly how low-end translation works. You get an Excel sheet with two columns, one labeled "English" and the other "Hungarian" (or whatever), and you get paid some laughable rate per word.
  - BunsanSpace 6y ago
    When my work did it, we added another coloumn with "context/explanation" and had devs fluent in that language review the translation. still a few phrases came out awkward
- toast0 6y ago
  > It is like they are being given sentences to translate without telling them the context This is a pretty common localization problem. Tooling doesn't always make it easy to share context with translators who are often contractors for outside agencies. Unfamiliar developers try to do string math instead of laying out full sentances to translate. People are surprised to find the same original sentence needs different translations on different screens. Of course, Google has lots of experience with localization, so should really have this down by now.

celsoazevedo 6y ago

Outlook's Portuguese translation uses the word "Lixo" (Trash/Garbage) for the "Spam" button. Sometimes people report emails as spam when they're trying to delete them.