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Bad Translation?
2

Bad Translation?

Bad Translation?

(OP)
I was reading an article about a company called Minisode that Sony Television just bought.  I checked out their site, and ran across some really bad/odd grammar and word use.  Here is a snippet where I've underlined the suspect words:

Quote (Minisode):

Actually, the tempo and action of is accelerated in each Charlie’s Angels Minisode by editing and expurgating. However, everything is so skillfully done that it doesn’t give any such expression. The story of a Charlie’s Angels Minisode is well comprehensible and action is enjoyable. A Charlie’s Angels Minisode is short, but full of huge fun.

I'm wondering if it is just bad translation, or I am so American that proper English reads/sounds funny to me.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

Bad translation.  Combination of cut-and-paste errors (I think there's a missing word in your first underlined bit) and misuse of Babelfish (or possibly misuse of a dictionary or thesaurus).

Hg

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RE: Bad Translation?

As a Brit I'm inclined to agree with HgTX assessment.

My favourites are some of the wordy adds in Airforces Monthly for various Russian firms.  

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Bad Translation?

Taking MadMango's quoted text and passing through Babelfish:  English to Italian to English results in.

Quote:

Really, the time and the action of are accelerated in the Minisode angels of every Charlie publishing and expurgating. However, all it is made therefore skillfully that it does not give to whichever expression. The history of the Minisode angels of the Charlie is comprehensible well and the action is amusing. The Minisode angels of the Charlie are short, but in full load of enormous divertimento.

RE: Bad Translation?

(OP)
I like "angles of the Charlie", but that whole paragraph is well incomprehensible.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

Could be someone has management potential?

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Bad Translation?

Maybe Sony will stumble upon this thread and expurgate Minisode

Failure is a prerequisite of successful design

RE: Bad Translation?

question from non-native English speaker:
what is wrong about "well comprehensible"?

RE: Bad Translation?

(OP)
To my American ear, "very comprehensible" just sounds more correct than "well".

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

epoisses--I think it's because "well" can only modify verbs (or verbal forms like participles), and not adjectives.

OK  I write well
OK  well-written paragraph
NO  well eloquent paragraph

Hg

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RE: Bad Translation?

Actually, what grates is not the bad translation but that new word: "Minisode". Ugh! even Big Bill doesn't like it and has shown his disgust by putting a squiggly red line under it that won't go away.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Bad Translation?

I can only imagine that "Minisode" is a bastard conjunction  of "mini-episode". That would imply that someone has taken an inane TV script of an inane show like Charlie's Angels and made it even more inane (as if that were possible) by removing things like plot and character development.

I can hardly wait...

RE: Bad Translation?

(OP)
But it will be full of huge fun!

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

Having taugh English for a number of years in an Asian country - I can say that it is a so-so translation for someone who has limited English skills with access to a good dictionary.

The main problem being that the translator just doesn't have a feel for the language and cannot manipulate the language or choose the right word in English from a straight word for word translation to make it correct / sound correct.

RE: Bad Translation?

Errr, sorry jraef, were there plots in Charlie's Angels shows? Not to mention the cardboard characters.

Bill

RE: Bad Translation?

Yuk!
At least it isn't "Mr.Minisode", "Mr.Webinar" etc.

JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com

RE: Bad Translation?

As a niggling point of grammatical analysis, viewers of British cops and robbers shows of a certain vintage will know that 'well hard' means very tough (etc), so 'well comprehensible' makes perfect sense, especially if uttered by a character with a fag stuck in his gob.



Cheers

Greg Locock

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RE: Bad Translation?

"You're nicked, you slag"

Bill

RE: Bad Translation?

Having a fag stuck in your gob might mean something quite different to some of the readers, unless I missed that particular episode of The Bill.
'Well good' (meaning very good) also seems to be in common use amongst teenagers (and proffesional footballers) in the UK. Or 'Well good innit' to be more precise. Obviously this should be sprinkled with a liberal amount of swear words, and should only be attempted if wearing a hoodie or in possession of an ASBO of some sort.

RE: Bad Translation?

"Minisode"... well this phenomenon of American TV is actually easy to understand. A minisode is the piece of a sitcom between the commercial and the moment where it "officially" starts, i.e. when you get the title song and the names of the actors. This can easily be a few minutes. It happens to me at least once a week that I'm quietly watching a sitcom and then all of a sudden it "starts". Anyway, between the "official" start and the "official" ending is the episode (cut to 36 pieces by commercials). Then after the "official" ending (the title song and a list of 22000 names of other people that flashes by in half a second) and the next commercial is another minisode. If there is insufficient decent quality material available, the minisode can just be a couple bloopers, people will even find this funny.

big smile

Either that or it's redneck for Minnesota.

RE: Bad Translation?

Yes I noticed that last time I was in the USA. When we get American TV imported to the UK, typically for a 30 minute sitcom, they show the "minisode" followed immediately by the opening titles and about 10 minutes of the programme, then an ad break followed by the rest of the programme the closing credits and the ending "minisode"/hilarious bloopers, there will then be another ad break before the next programme begins.
On the BBC, of course there are no advertisements, so US import shows tend to last about 20-25 minutes, which means that all the subsequent programmes start at slightly irregular times. Although there aren't that many imports on the beeb.

RE: Bad Translation?

I seem to recal using the phrase "well ard" on the playground.

As to the comments about fags, now I'm in the States, as I've posted before, going outside to smoke a fag could get you in a lot of trouble, and not just because some towns have banned smoking in certain public areas.

The minisode nonsense and 15 add breaks bugs me.

I could just about put up with the adds every 15 minutes or so as it was in the UK but every 2 minutes, ahhhh.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Bad Translation?

Star to KENAT,

"...Going outside to smoke a fag..."

I needed a good laugh!

RE: Bad Translation?

(OP)
Gymmeh, that phrase could be considered "hate speech" in the USA now.

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

MadMango, that was my point.  What is a fairly innocent phrase in one country could be considered a threat in another that could land you in legal trouble.

It's the example I like to use when reminding people that many phrases etc are context specific.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Bad Translation?

The most dubious phrase I could dream up was "Tossing a fag butt out of the window".

I did use to have a "Mr Brains Pork Faggots" lid pinned to my cube when working in America just to prove that the word had at least one other meaning.

RE: Bad Translation?


Another English meaning for Faggot apart from SomtinGuy's "Mr Brains Pork Faggots" (Meatballs made from
pork belly, pig's liver and onions) is a bundle of twigs, often Hawthorn from hedge trimming and used for fuelling bread ovens since the middle ages.

The use of the name Faggot derives from the Latin for bundle. Perhaps more appropriate to the Eng-Tips Forum, faggot used to be an ancient unit of measure for bundles of wooden sticks of two foot girth by two and a half foot long (Short Faggot), four foot (Long Faggot) or even iron bars at one foot long. Faggoting was also used to refer to the metalworking practice of forging bundles of iron bars together to make wrought iron or Damascus steel.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
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RE: Bad Translation?

(OP)
Huh?  What story is this article trying to convey?

Is this another bad translation, or just poor journalism?

"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."

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RE: Bad Translation?

I would say, not "bad" translation. Maybe someone how knows english well, but still stumbles over grammer...

RE: Bad Translation?

SincoTC, funny that came up yesterday when I was tidying my garrage and bundling some rolled up cardboard.

I said something about how my mum would have called them faggots.

My son (born and bred US) starts telling me that faggot is Irish for cigarrette and doing so very loudly so I'm sure half the neighbourhood heard him say 'faggot'.

As regards the OP I still HgTX is probably correct.  Over reliance on babelfish or similar.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Bad Translation?


Kenat, I hope that your neighbours know you well enough not to let your son's outburst influence them!

Faggot is still in relatively common use here in the South West for bundles of firewood and although I've never heard the word used for cigarettes I can't deny that it may be used for that in Ireland.

I believe that the common English use of the word fag for cigarette stems from the phrase "fag end" (of whatever), used for hundreds of years to describe the frayed end of rope, cloth or similar worthless leftover bits. After cigarettes came into use, the unsmoked bit between the lips was the fag end, so therefore, it seemed logical that the whole cigarette must be a fag.

Trevor Clarke. (R & D) Scientific Instruments.Somerset. UK

SW2007x64 SP3.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 4Gb Ram ATI FireGL V7100 Driver: 8.323.0.0
SW2007x32 SP4.0 Pentium P4 3.6Ghz, 2Gb Ram NVIDIA Quadro FX 500 Driver: 6.14.10.7756

RE: Bad Translation?

I've never heard faggot used for cigarette, just fag, and did correct my son, though I'm not sure he got it.

Your explanation sounds pretty reasonable.

KENAT, probably the least qualified checker you'll ever meet...

RE: Bad Translation?

Agreed.  I was entertaiing an American colleague here a few months ago.  On a bin (trash can) there was a small brass plate marked "Stubber Plate".  He asked what it was.  My reply: "It's for fags".

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