When learning a foreign language, the real challenge is to begin thinking within the language itself. Prior to anything approximating fluency, the tendency is always to translate word for word from your native language. I remember well my French teachers in grade school bemoaning the inherent English-ness of my written passages.
In Korea, the challenge is exacerbated by a heavy reliance on technological
translation tools, be they cell phones (han-de pones, as they are charmingly called here), pocket translators, or software programs. The result is a consistent barrage of semi-comprehensible sentences handed into me from my students as homework.
Since frustration will not cure this pervasive ailment, I thought I would celebrate it instead, showcasing a few select sentences in this section of my blog. And so, without further ado, the inaugural, word for word sentence:
After a lesson concerning the greatest inventions in history, I asked students to tell me, for homework, what they think will be invented in the future. One student responded with this somewhat intelligible sentence:
“I think will be invented work automatically act of robot self.”
Hey Geoff,
Thanks for responding to my Blog. It was good to hear from you again.
I have a particular affinity for these types of mis-translations. Have you ever gone to http://www.engrish.com ? Its worth checking out. I should scan the newspaper article I have on my fridge. It is about just this sort of thing. The author was poking fun at the weird translations that come out of China. For instance he was looking at a menu and wondered what “husband and wife lung slices were”. Maybe you read this when you guys were over here in the summer. Well, more to follow, I need to go have dinner now. Ave and I just rented the new Narnia movie, so we’ll be watching it later this evening.
Zak
Thanks for the reminder here. I’m taking German by correspondence for my degree. I am slowly letting the language sink in, but sometimes I still try to translate and English sentence directly into German. Now I’m trying to think in German. It may not come naturally right away, but I’m hoping that the intention will help!