Tuesday, February 10, 2015

the Ukrainian Gosstandart Hope Savchenko

Bing is so close ...
«Я никогда не скажу, что русские плохие, кроме продажных следователей и судей, которых я презираю», — украинская лётчица Надежда Савченко обратилась к журналистам на русском языке: http://lenta.ru/news/2015/02/10/savchenko2/?f
© Коммерсант, Геннадий Гуляев
"I will not say that the Russians are bad, except corrupt investigators and judges, which I despise," the Ukrainian Gosstandart Hope Savchenko asked reporters in Russian: http://lenta.ru/news/2015/02/10/savchenko2/?f © businessman Gennady Gulyaev

Pretty good on what she said, Bing - though she said she'd "never" say that.

But not perfect. For some reason, Bing chooses to translate some proper names - Надежда as Hope (fair enough, but names generally are left alone!) and ... well, you know, I think it doesn't realize that Коммерсант is the name of a publishing house and thinks it's a description of the reporter, Gulyaev. I have no idea why they turn лётчица into "Gosstandart", either. That's just kind of baffling.

Google, as usual, has its own problems:
"I would never say that Russian bad but corrupt investigators and judges, whom I despise" - Ukrainian Savchenko lёtchitsa Hope turned to reporters in Russian: http://lenta.ru/news/2015/02/10/savchenko2 /? f

© Kommersant, Gennadiy Gulyaev
It doesn't translate the name of the newspaper (though it does her name, too), but doesn't even try with лётчица, the feminine of лётчик, which they both know perfectly well: "pilot". And exactly why her description (украинская лётчица Надежда Савченко = "Ukrainian pilot Nadezhda Savchenko") gets so twisted up. Also, Google somehow misses that she's talking about RussianS, plural, not the language, and once again fails to supply the as-usual-omitted present tense "are". Кроме isn't "but", either. On the other hand, it knows she wasn't asking the reporters anything.

"I would never say that Russians are bad people, except for the corrupt investigators and judges, whom I despise," said Nadezhda Savchenko, the Ukrainian pilot, appealing to reporters in Russian. © Kommersant, Gennadiy Gulyaev

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1 Comments:

At 10:33 PM, February 10, 2015 Anonymous Kathie had this to say...

Google Translate does the same thing to proper names. I've accumulated quite a collection of them, among which are a few favorites:

Henrique Jorge Segurado Pavão => Henrique Jorge Insured Peacock

José Carlos Palha => Straw José Carlos

Daniel Ponte => Daniel Bridge

Lisa Monteiro => Lisa Miller

And, inexplicably:
Onésimo Teotónio Almeida => Onesimus Theotonius Almeida

 

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