Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox

Patrick Cox runs The World's language desk. He reports and edits stories about the globalization of English, the bilingual brain, translation technology and more. He also hosts The World's podcast on language, The World in Words.

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Google Translate, accent phobia, and job titles

April 12, 2010 ⋅ Post a comment
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In this podcast, our monthly top-five roundup of language stories:

5. Why Google Translate rules (and why human translators shouldn’t feel threatened.) Google, as we’ve come to expect by now, does things differently. And that includes translation. We tend to think of translators as human or robotic. Google Translate combines the best of both. Which is why its translations can be poetic — yes poetic – as well as accurate. Of course, it’s still not difficult to outwit Google Translate, and make it fail. But with each new iteration, it’s getting better. However, it’ll only continue to improve so long as humans keep translating stuff (because Google Translate uses online human translations as its source material). Also, one day, Google may need to clarify that its translation tool, however ubiquitous and accurate it becomes, is no substitute for learning a foreign language. Humans live and thrive — and love and make money — by communicating with each other. And they do that most effectively with their mouths, tongues and vocal chords.

4. Over-egging the job title pudding. The BBC reported that a weight-loss company recently advertized for a Product Testing Associate. This job would consist of eating an extra 400 calories a day, as well as popping a few of the company’s Proactol pills. That got a bunch of readers of the online BBC article to relate their own favorite misleading job titles: modality manager (translation: nurse, not to be confused with mortality manager); coordinator of interpretative teaching (tour guide); welcoming agent and telephone intermediary (receptionist); and field force agent (tax collector). All of a sudden, I’m thinking my job title — language podcast host — isn’t grand or pretentious enough. So henceforth, I will be known as a digitized philology presentation practitioner.

3. Accent discrimination. As a native English speaker with Brit accent (it’s drifted into the Atlantic after 20+ years in the United States) I think I’ve experienced positive accent discrimination. Many Americans have told me they’ll believe anything a Brit tells them — a good, if dangerous, thing for a reporter to hear. However, there are plenty of examples of the other type of discrimination. The latest concerns a US-based native French speaker who’s a senior partner in a global consulting firm. She speaks of being dis-invited to meetings with American clients, because of the fear that her accent would put them off.

2. The rise of Hindi (and English). My Big Show colleague Rhitu Chatterjee told me about an old friend of hers. He was born and raised in New Dehli by a Marathi-speaking mother and a Telugu-speaking father. Because of the language divide, the languages of the household were Hindi and English; Rhitu’s friend neither spoke nor understood the native tongues of either of his parents. That story writ large is the linguistic story of modern India — multilingual marriages, migration to big cities, a big generational shift to Hindi and English. English has now eclipsed Bengali as the the second-most popular language in India, according to recent census analysis, and Hindi continues to dominate.

1. New French words to replace English invaders. The Académie française (pictured) is the jealous protector of all things French: it determines what can and cannot be said and written, even if people often ignore its pronouncements. Often, the Académie finds itself with no alternative but to make up new words, usually when the hoi polloi are using one of those nasty English words (like podcasting). Some officially coined terms stick (logiciel, meaning software); others don’t (frimousse, meaning smiley). Authorities have now taken a new tack: they have turned to the people themselves. Citizens sent in their suggestions for words to replace Anglicisms such as buzz and newsletter. A committee decided which to adopt.

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Discussion

7 comments for “Google Translate, accent phobia, and job titles”

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  • Hope Boylston

    RE:Accent Discrimination

    In the early 1970′s, I drove cross country with my Chilean husband. We generally spoke Spanish to each other but were presumed to be French in most of the Midwest because, I presume, my husband didn’t look at all Mexican.

    That was before “freedom fries” and most people were charmed with our French. I think a lot of this is simply a combination of ignorance and xenophobia. Accent discrimination seems to reflect both accurately.

  • Tracy EcoGeek

    Why do we say L.A. for Los Angeles and not S.F. for San Francisco? I think it has far more to do than just the sound of the abbreviation. I believe a lot has to do with the image those who use the terms portray. “L.A.” as compared to Los Angeles suggests intimacy, like “I know this city so well I call it by it’s nickname.” L.A. has come to suggest glitz, luxury, rubbing shoulders with the stars, etc. (and also crime, poverty, greed, etc). People from Northern California, on the other hand refuse let the city of San Francisco be diminished by the usage of any abbreviation such as S.F. (that would be Finland anyway:). San Francisco is a stately and gorgeous city with deep roots and a proud and spicy history. Calling San Francisco S.F. would be like calling Barack, Barry (as he was called before becoming stately).

    I am not a native Californian, but I have lived here since 1983. One way we know someone is not from around here is when they call San Francisco, Frisco. No one here ever uses that name. In Northern California, we refer to the location simply as The City. Similarly, we rarely use the name L.A. but call that whole general area “down south”–weird I know.

    Next on the list: Vegas. Do you think that people who say Vegas do so as a way of portraying themselves as somewhat intimate with the place. I don’t think people use the term simply bc it is shorter. it seems to be a whole mentality. This sounds so snotty, but I would never say Vegas bc I don’t want people to think I like to go to the desert, blow wads of cash, indulge myself in every possible way, go to “show” so I can oogle women’s boobs, and live a temporary pretend life based on greed. How’s that for being opinionated? :)

  • Liz

    I loved this segment! Which part of The World podcasts should I subscribe to in order to get more like this?

  • Liz

    I just found that it’s The World in Words that I want to subscribe to, but don’t see a URL for those of us who choose not to use iTunes. I hope it can be received via other podcatchers?

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  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=728721644 Charlie Dorey

    LIke said above, Why do we say L.A. for Los Angeles and not S.F. for San Francisco?It is quite a strange phenomenon. It is the same as why some people are called buy their LAST name in the playground, whereas others are called by their FIRST name.

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