a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by johnnyFive

Unfortunately we've got a ways to go before this is something that people will even consider. On the other site, I see arguments regularly about how AAVE is somehow "broken" English rather than a consistent dialect. And that's without getting into cultural differences, which are present if you're willing to see them.

I think this problem is true for Spanish interpretation too. There are different registers on top of different countries; imagine the US vs. British English divide only multiplied by like 15. Even saying "you" can vary depending on the area. My Spanish is pretty good, and when I did administrative hearings once upon a time, interpreters used to get shit wrong constantly. Sometimes to the point of the translation being the literal opposite of what the person actually said. I was fortunate in that if I heard it, i could ask them to confirm the translation (I had to be careful not to put words in anyone's mouth since I was ultimately deciding the case). But I'm sure it happened plenty of times without anyone being the wiser. (I had another case where this happened to a Hindi speaker, and thankfully her attorneys also spoke it so were able to object.)





user-inactivated  ·  1907 days ago  ·  link  ·  

In addition with the struggles of accurate translation, I wonder how much trying to navigate cultural nuance poses a challenge as well.