Apr 28 2008
Search engines: Valley wisdom and legal weirdness
Smarty-britches Search Engines
Ah, the refreshing insanity of search engines and their algorhythmic wheezing. A few months ago I read Darren Rowse’s hilarious account of the weird choices sometimes made by Google Adsense in terms of those ads that show up in the right column. I’m no stranger to this dynamic, having made the bizarre discovery of my book, “Little Shifts,” translated into Portuguese. Actually, I didn’t find it. A friend did. Imagine my surprise… “Congratulations about your book being printed in foreign languages.”
HUH?
Bizarre, because hello, you’d think my publisher might have mentioned it, and hysterical because the reverse translation has a – well, let’s just say a wisdom of its own. Besides announcing in their press release that I am the author “Suzanna American Beth Stinnett,” there were these loose-as-marbles interpretations. Check it out:
“To change some things of place, to move in the closet, to revirar the drawers and the garage, also are small significant changes. This because the context where everything before existed also dumb.”
Okay, I admit to writing a chapter about clearing clutter. But I never said to revirar. And what about this one, so uplifting, yet so final:
“The communication potential finishes to grow. It says: `You is very legal. It breathes! Everything is well’.”
And this last little set, well, I might have to use it in my next book. Somehow the valley reference just rings. So remember:
“Open the doors to the changes. Valley everything to remember its interior process; of its axle and balance.”
Yes, indeed. Valley everything! And don’t forget the guacamole!
Suzanna “It must be love” Stinnett
To check out the REAL book, see the Little Shifts page. You is very legal!
By the way, I hope you don’t let a little digital misfiring discourage you from all the other glories of online communication. If you are working on content for your blog, for Twitter, or any other vehicle of modern communication, you’re invited to come check out my audio for my Content Guide, “The Writer in the Blog.” The audio supports the writer’s process. See the first few short (3 minutes or so) installments here on my audio blog: Spoken for You.
And don’t forget: Valley everything!
Yours anagramatically,
Suzanna Stinnett
p.s. Be sure and get your copy of Cloud Alchemy by joining my web family here at Great Adaptations.
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May 4th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Contact your publisher right away! There must a way to make proper translations, for any language to any language.
May 4th, 2008 at 9:06 pm
Well, let me clarify. These wacky translations occurred in a description of the book, which was probably used as a kind of press release in Brazil. The book itself was properly translated – although I would like to have a native Portuguese speaker take a look and see if it makes sense!
When you use “reverse translation” online, you can get some things as ridiculous as the ones I listed above. It just goes to show how inadequate our automated systems can be. I realized the other day that the current version of Microsoft Word will actually prompt people to misuse the apostrophe in “its.” That’s the one that makes my inner proofreader absolutely nuts — and now I know why I’m seeing it so often. Speller, beware!
Suzanna