Atlas Newsletter – July 2009
Which way to look!
Pedestrians have been left confused by a road sign telling them to look different ways in different languages. A temporary road sign in Cardiff city centre urged English speakers to look one way before crossing the road and Welsh speakers to look the other way. The sign "pedestrians look left" was translated to say "cerddwyr edrychwch i'r dde”, which in English says, "pedestrians look right".
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Cardiff Council said the sign was the work of a contractor and was removed once the mistake was noticed. "This sign was made by a traffic management contractor, not Cardiff Council”, they said. “It was originally placed on St Mary Street earlier this year by Wales & West Utilities while essential maintenance work was carried out. Cardiff Council has now removed the sign from the area." Meirion Prys Jones, Chief Executive of the Welsh Language Board, said, "We would like to stress how important it is to ensure the quality and accuracy of bilingual signs."
Question of the month! Test yourself with our July question:
Middle English was used by which poet? a) Hardy b) Blake c) Chaucer d) Shakespeare e) Milton (answer can be found at the bottom of the newsletter).
French newspaper, ‘La Tribune’ attempts to employ machine translation
Over the last month, the French newspaper ‘La Tribune’ has attempted to translate the articles of its website into various languages using a machine rather than a professional translation company like Atlas and understandably, the results have been shocking and comical! The title in French “Ryanair prêt à faire voyager des passagers debout" was translated to English as "Ryanair loan to make travel of the passengers upright". This makes little sense in English and a more accurate translation would be something like “Ryanair is set to fly passengers standing-up”. Another bizarre translation that appeared on the website of ‘La Tribune’ was that of the term “porte-parole”, translated from French to English as “door word”. In this case, a correct translation would be “spokesman”. “We are only experimenting for the moment”, explains Astrid Arbey, director for the news media sector of the website. She explains that the newspaper aims to officially launch its new multilingual website by autumn this year. According to her, the machine translation software is gradually improving and should be capable of producing “almost perfect” translations by the time of the launch. At the moment, the articles are also available in Spanish, German and Italian and we are told to expect them in Chinese and Japanese by the end of the year. “Our intention is to be able to provide up-to-date news on the world’s economy in many different languages and therefore reach-out to a new audience via the Internet,” says Ms Arbey.
However, the newspaper will have to do much to convince a number of journalists, who have chosen to remain anonymous but who openly criticise the approach of Alain Weill. Mr Weill took over the newspaper in February 2008. “It is a way of cutting costs and does little for the image of Alain Weill who wants to do things quickly without providing the financial means”, they comment. “These translations are far from credible and are having a damaging effect on the slant of the newspaper that is usually considered to be a serious broadsheet, intended for professionals of the business and financial world.”
Although the majority of the articles are comprehensible, machine translation cannot produce the fluency of a native speaker or the mastery of a professional translator.
Source: Agence France-Presse, news agency of France.
Happy holidays!
As it’s that time of the year again, we thought we’d take a look into where some of our fellow Europeans like to spend their summer holidays. I asked around the Atlas office and discovered some interesting facts.
“Italians love going to the seaside, irrespective of the location. It could be the local beach, accessible by car or a Caribbean resort! In the past Italians tended to go on holiday locally but these days they are starting to opt for travel abroad due to low-cost flights. Italians like to enjoy a day-trip or longer with friends and family at the seaside, where they organise picnics on the beach, play football, swim and get an enviable tan, of course!”
Helpful phrases in Italian:
1) Quanto costa? É troppo! Me lo fai lo sconto? - How much is it? It's too much! Can I get a discount?
2) Ce la fai una foto? - Could you take a picture of us?
3) C'è un ristorante italiano qui vicino? - Is there an Italian restaurant nearby?
Elisabetta, Italy
Kreidefelsen, Baltic Sea
A ‘Strandkorb’ (deck-chair) in Ahlbeck, Baltic Sea
“Like me, many Germans prefer to stay in Germany for their summer holidays. This summer, for example, lots of my friends are going to the Baltic Sea. This is a favourite holiday destination of mine! The Baltic Sea is made up of many different islands and my favourite island is ‘Usedom’. You can find lovely beaches there, but unlike the Mediterranean, there’s no guarantee the weather will be hot and sunny and the sea is extremely cold. One of my favourite holiday pastimes is to sit in a ‘Strandkorb’ (deck chair) and enjoy a good book while munching on ‘Fischbrötchen’ (a bread roll with fish)”.
Helpful phrases in German:
1) Kann hier jemand Englisch? - Does anyone here speak English?
2) Wo ist die naechste Kneipe? - Where is the nearest pub?
3) Wieviel kostet das? - How much does this cost?
Julia, Germany
“French people like to stay in France and visit the sunny, south coast, especially the "Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur" region, or the West Coast. Many music festivals are organised throughout France during the summer period and lots of people take time out to visit their families. This can cause huge traffic jams on the roads during the first two weeks of August! When French holiday-makers go abroad, they tend to stay in Europe and visit countries like Spain and Italy”.
Helpful phrases in French:
1) J’aimerais réserver une chambre simple pour 5 nuits, s'il vous plaît – I would like to book a single room for 5 nights, please.
2) Pourriez-vous m'indiquer où se trouvent les toilettes les plus proches? – Could you tell me where the nearest toilets are?
3) Où est-ce que je peux acheter des cartes postales? Where can I buy postcards?
Gilles, France
Atlas Accounts Department – Maggie gets a new assistant!
Atlas would like to introduce a new addition to the team, the lovely Parson Russell Terrier puppy “Tally”! She came to live with Maggie, Accounts Manager, and her husband Nigel 8 weeks ago. "Tally is 16 weeks old and enjoys going to training classes each week, where she has learnt to sit, lay, stay, come and heel. Her favourite pastimes are playing with other puppies, chasing sticks and then chewing them to shreds, playing with a football and running on the beach", explains Maggie. Maggie is also starting to teach her the tricks of the trade as she helps out with the Atlas accounts.
Answer to July question:
C) Chaucer.
Thank you for your interest in the Atlas monthly newsletters. We welcome your feedback and ideas for future articles.
Compiled by Sara Roden-Scott
