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Babelfish Sparks Minor Diplomatic Row
Stony Stevenson writes with a link to a cautionary tale on the ITnews site. A group of journalists heading to The Netherlands were gathering some information prior to the trip. They sent off an email to the Dutch foreign ministry asking some questions, but as they weren't native speakers they needed some help. Unfortunately, they turned to Babelfish for official correspondence. "The beginning of the email read: 'Helloh bud, enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian.'"
Morons trusting the legendary untrustworthiness of Babelfish for official work spark minor diplomatic row.
There.
An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
How can journalists spark a major diplomatic event?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
1) Why does anything involving a bunch of journalists have to do with diplomacy?
2) Does the country in question have a stick so far up their colective asses they couldn't laugh this off?
3) Or is the headline total flamebait, and I'm a sucker?
"As God is my witness, I thought turkeys could fly." A. Carlson
The real hilarity of it is, in the Netherlands, of all places, you can find tons of english speakers. Hell, the people who got the letter probably spoke decent english. Why, in gods name, would you do such an amatuer translation, and not just assume that someone will be able to read it.
ad logicam Claiming a proposition is false because it was presented as the conclusion of a fallacious argument.
So true! Journalists are a powerful group. They are the eyes and ears of the public and have a tremendous influence on public opinion. The lead up to the war in Iraq. No journalists asked questions, no politicians. Journalists wield the power to shape perception, and perception might as well be reality for most people.
I got a catholic block.
I can't find any Hebrew translation option on the babelfish website.
Furthermore, in the Jerusalem Post article, they point to a site babelfish.com, which appears to be a SEO site and doesn't do translations at all.
Compound that with the question of "Why would the Dutch Foreign Ministry care about an email from some random Israeli reporter?", and I'm guessing that this entire story is a hoax.
Yes, I realize that the Jerusalem Post is supposedly a high-quality paper, but the fact that they linked to a site (babelfish.com) that doesn't even do online translations makes me think that this wasn't their most well-researched and well-substantiated work. If this is really causing such a fuss in Holland, how come there is nothing in the Dutch press about this?
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
It couldn't have possibly been Babelfish, since Babelfish doesn't support Hebrew.
It may have been babylon.com, but this hasn't been confirmed.
Computers are just like greek gods. They are capable, they are omnipotent, they just take everything you demand literally. Basicly computers are just levers mounted to your own incompetence, and they increase hundredfold every mistake you make.
I'm beginning to suspect that the whole story is a hoax.
First off, babelfish doesn't translate Hebrew, and with good reason. Hebrew is hard for a computer to translate. The three letters, Heh Aleph Mem could have just as easily been translated to "the nation" or "the nut" (as in nuts and bolts) as it was to "the mother". The only way to know the correct translation is to know the context of the word, which is not always easy.
Secondly, whomever wrote this hoax doesn't speak Hebrew very well. You don't have to go from "ha'im" to "ha'ima" to get from "if" to "the mother". In fact, the letters Heh Aleph Mem could be read as "ha'im" (if) or "ha'aim" (the mother) without having to add a letter to get all the way to "ha'ima".
Lastly, the Dutch are world-renowned for their extreme tolerance. There is no way a Dutch person would be deeply offended over something like this.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
yeah make fucked up dutch the main trade language, that'll teach them ;)
This is the sig that says NI (again)
It's hardly obligatory ... however as a common communications medium it is extremely useful. Take Africa, for example ... there are so many different languages and incompatible dialects among the nations of that continent that if it weren't for English, they'd have no ability communicate at all. Hell, my gf is from there, and she tells me that people from neighboring villages often can't speak their native tongues to each other: they speak English! It's expected, if you want to do business beyond your immediate round. It has nothing to do with the beauty of the language, or how difficult it is to learn: it's what you need.
... machine translation has a long way to go. Everybody publish in their native tongues? That would bring science to a standstill. Science is all about communication, scientists absolutely require that common ground.
Then take China, which I understand has more students learning English than the entire population of the United States (yeah, that bothers me a little.) Let's not forget India, which has stolen a good chunk of China's economic thunder simply because they speak better English (for the time being.) The reality is this: the British Empire spread The Queen's English far and wide, and America's later scientific and economic prowess only cemented the value of that language to many peoples across the globe. You may not like the fact the English is today's lingua franca, but then again reality is something that most people on this miserable planet dislike intensely. You appear to be no different in that regard. Personally, I expect that tomorrow's common language will be Mandarin. Ha! And you thought English is hard to learn. I'd rather learn Spanish.
So far as those researchers are concerned: well, let's look at some facts there as well. Science is now (and has been for some time) a global phenomenon. You can complain that it's "needlessly hard" for scientists to publish their findings in English (and I'll grant that it's a burden, no argument) but what solution to that can you suggest? Babelfish? Yeah, right
As I pointed out, for a variety of historical reasons a working knowledge of English is actually a fairly common skill around the world: should such utility simply be disposed of because you find English "distasteful" or the Anglo-Saxon history unattractive (I don't fully grasp the relevance of your comment there, but okay)? That's ridiculous on the face of it: get over any anti-American bias you may have and accept that people (scientists and otherwise) speak English (of whatever variety) because it's often the only method they have to talk to each other.
Language is a tool, a means to an end, and you don't have to like a tool to use it. Another fact: people that refuse to learn a foreign language are people that haven't been in a position where that lack of knowledge cost them something, made their lives more difficult. Most Americans are like that, because America is a large country and most of us don't deal with people of other countries on a daily basis (well, other than Mexico, that is.) That's hardly the case in Europe, where you almost have to be a polyglot just to order dinner.
Or speak English.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.