Showing posts with label Google Translator. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Google Translator. Show all posts

Monday, September 6, 2010

On Velcro Parents and Garbled Google Translations

Just saw an article from the JoongAng Daily about Velcro parents. Former Foreign Minister Yu Myung-hwan has had to step down after a nepotism scandal broke out. The article concluded with an extract from a  poem by Jeong Chae-bong:

“The child you send into the wilderness becomes a bean tree,
but the child you keep in the greenhouse becomes a bean sprout.”

광야로
내보낸 자식은
콩나무가 되었고
온실로/들여보낸 자식은
콩나물이 되었고

(정채봉, ‘콩씨네 자녀교육’)


Out of curiosity, I tried out the Google translator on this piece of verse and got this garbled version:

"Into the wilderness / exported child is / was a samurai kongna / conservatory / sent in the child is / has become overcrowded "

I guess this could be paraphrased as:  " The text you translate  with a dictionary and your own common sense/ becomes a bean tree / but the text you send to Google Translator/ becomes a bean sprout."

My apologies to Google Translator, but I can't resist the dig. Human translators, rest easy - your day job is still intact. BTW,  what IS a " samurai kongna"?


sources:
http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2925640
http://picsicio.us/keyword/bean%20sprouting/