Another Reason Not to Use Online Translators

by

Responses to my online translator post were mixed. Some people agreed, while others got defensive*. Past differences of thought aside, I found something today that argues unequivocally in favor of my point. It seems that Kosuke Fukudome, a right fielder for the Chicago Cubs, has some well-meaning but very Japanese-illiterate fans. At a Cubs game earlier this year (April–I’m kind of late), fans brandished signs that they thought bore the Japanese equivalent to the Cub’s slogan: It’s Gonna Happen. Unfortunately (but oh-so-predictably), they didn’t.

The signs read 「偶然だぞ」 or gūzen da zo, which translates into It’s Accidental. Probably not the most appropriate sentiment when your favorite baseball player steals a home run.

So what caused this blunder? Online translators, of course. As illustrated below, when entered into Google tranlsate, the Cubs’ slogan becomes the inadvertantly commical phrase that ended up on the placards (much to the delight of the Japanese blogging community, I might add). Had the fans tried the more gramatically correct “It’s going to happen”, they would have gotten 「それが起こるだろう」, which would have been a vast improvement. Just some food for thought :D

Source: as-is.net

*I’m joking, you guys. You’re all entitled to your own opinions.

  • ghindo

    That’s kinda awesome. Those well-meaning fans; God bless ‘em.

  • http://www.goddesscarlie.com GoddessCarlie

    I actually had a Russian guy contact me, using an online translator. Most interesting… He of course assisted me in using a good online translation service as well as he didn’t realise that in Australia we talk English. I kindly educated him on this point and blocked him… his emails were too hard to read and it was kind of creepy.

  • St

    Another diplomatic incident caused by online translator-programming hedgehog (オンライン翻訳-プログラミングヘッジホッグ).

  • http://www.michaelburnner.com oo0speed0oo

    You can’t blame people for using them…. its all they got. Especially if you using the translator for something random like japan ebay :)

  • JohtoKen

    Who knew America and machine translation would entertain the Japanese? Something tells me Futaba Channel’s nijiura board is flooding with messages relating to this.

  • DeeLeigh

    You have to give the guys points for trying, right?!?

    I think most people, if they are going to use an online translator, is they need to translate whatever the result back into the language it was originally put in…but that’s just my take…

  • http://www.youtube.com/user/CHESTERlikesSUBARU Chester_King

    What is this.. base ball ?

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Double translating is hilarious. I don’t know if you’ve ever tried it, but if you haven’t:

    1) Go to Babelfish or Google Translate
    2) Type a paragraph in your native tongue
    3) Translate into Japanese
    4) Translate back into English

  • diojenisu

    There is this vlogger called Sai… I tried to online-translate one of the guy’s video titles, long time ago… It came out as “rhinoceros something something…. ” Hahahahaah! At least i learned a new word!

    The only reason i use online translators now is if there is just a single kanji or a four-character idiom i don’t know.

  • diojenisu

    * and i use worldlingo for that purpose. And as far as dictionaries go, linear is my choise. Rock on.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    :|

  • JohtoKen

    It turns out that “Engrish” phrases are commonly made translating an English sentence into Japanese and then back.

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    oh man, Sai brings back memories. That kid is from my hometown.

  • http://www.michaelburnner.com oo0speed0oo

    turn that frown upside down! lol

  • http://www.tofugu.com koichi

    i dunno, i think a flat frown turned upside down is just another flat frown :|

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Indeed.

  • Alyssa

    GO CHICAGO!

    Best City in America ( well, i think Tokyo and Chicago are both amazing )

  • DeeLeigh

    Point well taken! I have been there many many times…but at the same time it’s let me know if I was at least somewhat on the right track…I’ve have never taken anything I’ve gotten from an online translator at face value (except for that one time in Spanish class…), but it has let me know if I was way off kilter…

  • http://www.michaelburnner.com oo0speed0oo

    dam you got me…

  • keikan16

    Well at least they tried I guess……I dont follow baseball really but it seems that there are a few japanese ball players now here in the U.S.

  • mmnessa

    LMAO, it’s like reading something a robot would say.

  • http://youtube.com/ch1ka ch1ka

    aaaw the trouble they must’ve gone to print that stuff on paper just to show their fave baseball player! they must really love the guy… but clearly not enough!
    but ye, great article Erin; its true online translators are really not good.
    if you try to translate the same thing on different online translators, the outcome is completely different on each site. Really unreliable.
    ~use a dictionary, or a japanese speaking person lol

  • Kennin

    Hahaha, great!
    Reminds me of the good old days in the mid eighties, when I did Aikidō.
    There is a technique where one walks on his knees, called “Shikkō”.
    One day, there was this Japanese sensei who visited the dōjō, and as soon as our teacher said the name of that very technique, the Japanese laughed out loudly.
    Apparently we pronounced it wrong, turning it into “peeing”. =)

  • Kai

    i love cubs fans :)
    they mean well.

  • http://toshogu.blogspot.com tornadoes28

    Yes, you are late. But good post. Those translators are extremely unreliable.

  • emiko

    My friend uses a translator to chat with people in japan, maybe I should tell her to stop.

  • http://www.mechamechamedia.blogspot.com John T

    Online translation (or machine translation) almost never works in Japanese. Verb tense is emdedded in the word. So in English “I don’t go” it’s easy to translate those three words. In Japanese the subject is almost always elminated if it is obvious so “I don’t go” would look like “godon’t”. Most translation machines see the “go” but don’t conjugate the rest. So if your friend is telling you she isn’t coming to America, your machine translator might make you think she is.

  • http://www.myspace.com/redbrainmatter YoyoKirby

    Wow… That’s pretty o/pwned.

  • Ruka

    ┌──────┐
    　│　 　 　 　 │
    　│ .偶然だぞ |　
    　│　 　 　 　 　 │
    　(ﾖ─∧＿∧─E)　
    　 ＼（* ´∀｀）／
    　 　 Y 　　　 Y

  • Eevee

    Ahhh… If only they did work. We all gotta dream, right?

    I’ll never forget… halfway through the school year almost my entire French class had used an online translator for their left-to-the-last-minute homework (or more correctly, a few people had and the rest of them copied those people) and it was very apparent to our poor teacher by the time we had marked about half of the assignment. He asked about 5 different people for one sentence and it was all crap. He ended up yelling at us, storming out, and slamming the door behind him. We all sat their in silence for a few minutes and he came back with his tea, sat down, and looked at us. The rest of the period went that way. Never happened again, I gotta hand it to that guy, he knows how to scare high school kids. xD

  • http://stshores24.com Stephen

    Not sure if you saw this, Koichi…a little crude, but another example of why one shouldn’t use translation tools! http://www.shipmentoffail.com/fails/2008/05/tra…

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Just so you know… I wrote this article.

    Haha.

    At any rate, I’ve seen that picture before. Pretty funny :D

  • http://shishigirl.blogspot.com Ku

    Wouldn’t 「ぜったいおこるぞ」be closest to the actual sentiment…?

    (Just sayin’.)

    Hilarious either way. Fukudome likely has a good laugh every time he looks into the stands.

  • http://tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Definitely. Unfortunately, online translators aren’t great with context or connotation, haha. Ah well, at least they’re entertaining.

  • http://shishigirl.blogspot.com Ku

    Wouldn't 「ぜったいおこるぞ」be closest to the actual sentiment…?

    (Just sayin'.)

    Hilarious either way. Fukudome likely has a good laugh every time he looks into the stands.

  • http://www.erin.tofugu.com Tofugu_Erin

    Definitely. Unfortunately, online translators aren't great with context or connotation, haha. Ah well, at least they're entertaining.