Online Translators Don’t Work!After arriving in Japan a little under five months ago I have made a distinct effort to learn the Japanese language in order to make my everyday life a little easier, and to better understand the cultural differences. I have learnt a lot so far, however, to learn such a complex language takes time and I am still only a fraction of the way there. I have a few Japanese friends and I try as much as possible to use my Japanese whenever I am communicating with them, whether it be face to face or via email. On many occasions I write emails in Japanese with the help of my trusty pocket dictionary and an assortment of other texts, especially when writing kanji (kanji being one of Japanese’s three alphabets and easily the most difficult to learn). The problem arises not when writing an email, but when reading the replied one.
Ask anyone about their native language and they will tell you that the meaning depends just as much on tone and context as it does the actual words that are spoken. This is one of the first difficulties in any language and a consistent theme throughout all. However another important aspect of language that I am coming to terms with is the way in which cultural aspects define how a language is spoken. For example there are many words in Japanese that have no direct translation into English as they are words relating to the specific Japanese culture.
One day my Japanese friend sent me an email of which I could understand about 40% of what she had written, most of my understanding came from context, the fact that I already knew the subject we were discussing. My usual method is to then put the email into the online translator to help understand the complex kanji characters and help me understand the remaining 60% of what she is saying. However, every time I used the online translator it kept coming up with the word ‘tiredness’. My friend works at nights and therefore I assumed that she was always tired and so I would try and arrange to spend time during the day, however she kept informing me that nights were fine, and subsequently I became quite bemused as to whether there was an underlying message that she was trying to tell me that I obviously could not figure out.
One day however she sent me an email while I was out of the house and could not get to my online translator. I handed my cell phone to another English speaking friend of mine and asked her to help me translate the email. The first word in the email ‘otsukaresamadesu’ she translated as a word Japanese people use to express a hard day at work. This word can be used in many ways. It can be used by someone to thank somebody for doing something difficult, for example a mother thanking a teacher for teaching her children that day. It can be used by an employee saying goodbye to their work colleagues at the end of the day. It can be used between friends after undertaking a difficult task, and so on so forth. She continued to explain to me the meaning of this word, and in doing so identified the part ‘tsukareru’ as the Japanese verb to be tired, however when used within this word it has a completely different meaning. The online translator has tried to do a literal English translation of the word, when no English word exists to explain this cultural situation. I now finally understand that my friend is expressing that she has finished a day of work and is thankful, and not that she has a serious sleeping problem!
Matt Cornell
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