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Babelfish Sparks Minor Diplomatic Row

Posted by Zonk on from the careful-how-you-type-that dept.

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.'"

6 of 331 comments (clear)

  1. Re:The question we're all thinking. by caffeinemessiah · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Babelfish sparks minor diplomatic row

    Morons trusting the legendary untrustworthiness of Babelfish for official work spark minor diplomatic row.

    There.

    --
    An old-timer with old-timey ideas.
  2. They're only journalists by iknownuttin · · Score: 5, Insightful
    "How could this email possibly have been sent?" an Israeli diplomat told the Jerusalem Post. "These journalists have sparked a major incident."

    How can journalists spark a major diplomatic event?

    --
    I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
    1. Re:They're only journalists by owlnation · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How can journalists spark a major diplomatic event?
      Absolutely. I do not believe this story for one single second.

      Firstly, diplomats are diplomats because they are smart and non-reactionary. They would not react like this to mails that presumably came from a domain that identified the senders as foreign journalists -- or otherwise identified the journalists as being just that.

      In addition to this, (having lived in Holland myself) the Dutch are generally pretty good with the fact that few people speak Dutch. They are also used to dealing in a number of languages, and the sometimes accidental comedy that ensues. It's clear that the senders of this mail were not native speakers -- thus why would anyone overreact?

      Truth is -- they wouldn't.

      I call Bullshit.
  3. Babelfish Doesn't Translate Hebrew by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  4. Whole Story is BS by Slashdot+Parent · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  5. Re:Mod Parent Up! by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Journalists write fiction related to current events. It astounds me that they have any credibility left. Have you ever read manistream journalism about a technical issue that you were expert in? Total crap right? Do you think that's unusual somehow? Have you ever been interviewed, or read about events in which you participated? Total fabrication, right? Do you think that's somehow unusual?

    Even when people complain about the press, they usually complain about the press failing to mislead the public in the correct direction. Amazing.

    --
    Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.