[HPforGrownups] Re: Bad Translation

[Amanda Lewanski]

No: HPFGUIDX 6816

Kaitlin wrote:

> You translated English to French and back to English?  Or did you
> translate the French version into English?
> Computer translators are really bad because they don't really look at
> context.  Instead, they basically do word-for-word substitution.

Hence "out of sight, out of mind," once translated and re-translated, has
returned "invisible idiot."

> One thing that I think is interesting, however, is how they change
> Tom Riddle's name.  If you recall, he writes out TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE and
> rearranges it to spell I AM LORD VOLDEMORT.  In Spanish, he is TOM
> SORVOLO RYDDLE so that when rearranged, it spells SOY LORD VOLDEMORT. How
> do other languages do this passage?  I would be interested to find out.

Me, too! Steve, want to start a Lexicon section? I'd like to see how the
different languages manage this--especially Chinese or the other languages
which are not alpabetically written.

--Amanda