False Friend: Inconvenient[e]

Sometimes a false friend turns up when there is no actual translation from a source text to a target text (at least I surmise that’s what happened here). I may be stretching in calling it a false friend, but in my judgement, the word choice was too influenced by Spanish, and gives the wrong impression. This article in the the Toronto Star is about Mexico’s promotion of less-known sites to tourists. The Mexican Secretary [I’d call her ‘Minister’] of Tourism visited Toronto “promoting 10 new ‘Routes of Mexico,’ a travel program that connects multiple cities under themes that tourists can pick according to their interest.”

In view of concerns about escalating drug violence in Mexico, the Minister is

“launching a hotline this summer that tourists can call if they experience ‘any inconvenience.’ The person on the phone will act as a sort of ombudsman to resolve problems.”

I’ll bet that the Minister of Tourism said inconveniente, or, if she was speaking in English, was thinking of that Spanish word.

It’s a false friend for “inconvenient.” I’d even put it the class of Tricky False Friends, because the meanings are close and may overlap. Nevertheless, they’re not the same.

Let’s compare:
inconvenient: not convenient especially in giving trouble or annoyance

inconveniente: 1. no conveniente* [not conveniente; so here we branch to explore the meaning of…]

*conveniente:
1. adj. Útil, oportuno, provechoso. [useful, proper]
2. adj. Conforme, concorde. [consistent]
3. adj. Decente, proporcionado. [decent, appropriate]

OK, back to inconveniente:
2. m. Impedimento u obstáculo que hay para hacer algo. [impediment or obstacle]
3. m. Daño y perjuicio que resulta de ejecutarlo. [damage or resulting harm]

The comment on the tourist hotline being juxtaposed with concerns about violence, I hypothesize the hotline is meant to deal with crimes and related problems, not “inconveniences” in the sense of the English word, which could cover much milder situations. In Spanish, “inconveniences” might be called incomodidades or molestias, but I doubt the tourist hotline is intended to help tourists who find the bed too hard, or the bathwater too cold. But I’m only speculating.

Strike Two for “The Second Sex”

The story about the new translation into English of Simone Beauvoir’s Le deuxieme sexe (The Second Sex) turns out to have a shocking and disappointing sequel.

To recap, the original 1953 translation was full of inaccuracies ranging from distortions to errors that reversed the meaning of Beauvoir’s words, as well as sizeable omissions.

A new translation was finally commissioned in 2006 by the holder of the British rights (see article). But now that it has been published it has come in for heavy criticism, too. This article by Toril Moi in the London Review of Books describes how the translators seem to have been inadequate to the task.

The translators stated that their aim, besides restoring the cut material and correcting mistranslations, was to restore Simone Beauvoir’s voice to the text. Professor Moi believes that they failed. The examples she cites show that they adhered much too closely to French sentence structure and vocabulary, apparently in a mistaken belief that this rendered the translation more faithful. Instead, it resulted in a text replete with false friends at the level of vocabulary, syntax, and style.

False friend: psícico/psychic (adjective)

Psícico: adj. Perteneciente o relativo a las funciones y contenidos psicológicos. (RAE)
Pertaining or relative to psychological function and content.

Psychic:
adj.
1. Of, relating to, affecting, or influenced by the human mind or psyche; mental: psychic trauma; psychic energy.
2.
a. Capable of extraordinary mental processes, such as extrasensory perception and mental telepathy.
b. Of or relating to such mental processes.

And from the Merriam-Webster Dictionary,
Psychic:
1: of or relating to the psyche : psychogenic
2: lying outside the sphere of physical science or knowledge : immaterial, moral, or spiritual in origin or force
3: sensitive to nonphysical or supernatural forces and influences : marked by extraordinary or mysterious sensitivity, perception, or understanding

What both meanings have in common is the idea of something related to the mind. However, the meaning of the Spanish word doesn't evoke the extrasensory, spiritual connotations of the English word.

I generally find, given the context, that psícico should be translated as "psychological." As for translating "psychic" into Spanish, several dictionaries give "psícico", which I don't find adequate in view of the above definitions. The Oxford does give "para(p)sicológico" which a check of the RAE confirms as an accurate translation.

A Site for Movie Translation Mistakes

A bilingual movie-watcher can often recognize dubbing mistakes through knowledge of the original version. We find these errors horridly fascinating. "Navaja en el ojo" at "Switch off and Let's Go" points us to a collection of movie dubbing goofs. (As she points out, most, but not all of them are translation mistakes.)

A sample mistake: In an episode of "Babylon 5," there was a reference to the epidemic called "El Auxilio" ("The Help"), namely AIDS.

Submissions are invited. At the site, it says

Parece mentira, pero aun teniendo en cuenta que en el proceso de doblaje intervienen como mínimo un traductor, un adaptador de texto y el propio actor de doblaje, a veces ...se cuelan gazapos. De momento la lista que hemos elaborado es muy breve, pero esperamos que crezca con tu ayuda.

It's hard to believe, but even though the dubbing process involves at least a translator, an adaptor and the dubbing actor, sometimes... there are goofs. Our list is still short, but with your help, we hope it can grow.

Translating "su" and "important"

Ace blogger Mimi Smartypants was bemused to compare the instructions for a feminine product in French and Spanish with the English ones. She writes

The maxi-pad box was labeled in many languages [...], and I really enjoyed how a "heavy" flow turns into an "important" flow in French and an "abundant" flow in Spanish. Also how the Spanish claims to protect against "loss" rather than the English "leakage," and how the adhesive strip, in Spanish, holds the pad firmly in "your" place (rather than just "in place.") Hold me firmly in my place, I have an important flow.

Her reflections lead to some interesting observations on false and deceptive friends, and translation traps. Here the French "important" does actually mean "big," and not what English speakers would define as "important".

The Spanish was no doubt something like

Esto permite que la toalla se mantenga mejor en su lugar, dando a la consumidora mayor seguridad.

and here "su lugar" isn't "your place" but "its place," which does make more sense. An easy confusion to fall into, when you consider that su can mean "his," "her," "its," "your" or "their." Danger zone for the sleepy translator!

False Friend Alert: comunicación

A publicity feature about an airline begins with the subtitle “Respondiendo a las necesidades de comunicación,” and the first sentence reads: “NNNN es el año en el que comienza una nueva época en la aviación en México al crearse el Consorcio XXXX, S.A. de C.V., una empresa dedicada a satisfacer las necesidades de comunicación del estado de YYY.”

It wasn't clear from the title alone, but the first sentence showed that it would have been a mistake to translate “comunicación” by “communication.” It's clear that the meaning intended here is #4 in the RAE: “4. f. Unión que se establece entre ciertas cosas, tales como mares, pueblos, casas o habitaciones, mediante pasos, crujías, escaleras, vías, canales, cables y otros recursos.” Does this meaning exist in English for “communication”? Only partially, according to The American Heritage Dictionary and Merriam-Webster, which more or less agree that communication can be “a network of routes for sending messages and transporting troops and supplies” and “a system of routes for moving troops, supplies, and vehicles” respectively. Implicitly, communication as routes for transport seems to be limited to military usage, and even so, it is a sub-meaning of communication as sending information.

Now, let’s look at some bilingual dictionaries. The Oxford Spanish Dictionary gives “link” as the first meaning (1a) for comunicación, and uses “road communications” in the example sentence that illustrates this meaning. Meanings (b) and (c) refer to transfer of information, and (d) can be either transfer of information or transport links ("comunicaciones, por carretera, teléfono, etc.").
The Gran Larousse puts the transfer-of-information meaning first, with an extensive breakdown of submeanings, but this is followed by a short entry indicating the other meaning of links between two locations, though still translating it by the English word “communications.”

In summary, it is necessary to be careful when translating comunicación, because if it refers to links between places rather than the transfer of information, “communication” is probably not an accurate translation. In the example that started this entry, it would have been downright misleading, for it would have suggested a company with quite a different business than passenger and cargo transport.