A reporter for the German TV channel Phoenix was caught on a hot mic expressing his frustration during live coverage of Donald Trump's inauguration on Monday.
I’ve heard it’s actually really difficult, because a good translator doesn’t do it literally.
They’re supposed to say something which gets the same meaning across, which often isnt what you’d get just by translating each word.
That leaves people translating trump with a problem: you can’t generally turn his long rambling speeches into something with a clearly understandable meaning without putting words into his mouth, or summarising so aggressively that you’d only say a couple of sentences for every few minutes of speech
I’ve read that deaf or non-English speakers don’t really get to understand just how stupid trump really is because it’s impossible to accurately translate his nonsense babbling.
Kind of true if you just read news headlines as well. Lots of sane washing occurs around Trump where he’ll say something absolutely batshit insane and the media picks it apart to make it sound like a cohesive policy.
I think just translating word by word what he says is the best way to bring across what he is trying to say anyways. its not like there is deeper structures that need to be conveyed.
I understand though, that it is difficult to do, if you are used to turning eloquence into eloquence.
But you then need to unlearn a lifetime and career of pattern recognition.
I think this is honestly how Trump gets people who haven’t learned critical thinking. It’s all vibes and insinuation, so it sucks you into finishing his thoughts for him. And you think, “well actually that sounds reasonable”, because of course it does, because it sounds like you.
It exploits your natural impulse to meet the other person halfway and do the work for them. But Trump isn’t trying at all, he’s just doing pure word-association, and he’s not your friend. I think anyone who’s prone to unhealthy parasocial bonding is especially vulnerable to it.
I remember hearing his speeches when he was first coming to power and realising how seductive that pull was. I was constantly having to slap my own hand away from taking charge of where the sentences were going, and really pay attention to what he was actually saying, and it was always nonsense with a healthy dose of hatred, but usually couched in language that sounded vaguely personable, like, “Hey, we’re all friends here, you get it, what I’m saying, right?”
I think just translating word by word what he says is the best way to bring across what he is trying to say anyways.
But different languages don’t always have word for word translations. And what about sentence structure? When he says things out of order how do you directly translate that to a language structured completely different from real English and his version of “English?”
This is not just an issue in translation. Anybody who summarises his speeches in English will struggle to extract the meaning. Reporting should always mention this issue in the first line. A disclaimer like: «it’s difficult to make heads or tails from Trumps speech do to his incoherent speech. Below is our best attempt.» should be a preface to all reporting.
I’ve heard it’s actually really difficult, because a good translator doesn’t do it literally.
They’re supposed to say something which gets the same meaning across, which often isnt what you’d get just by translating each word.
That leaves people translating trump with a problem: you can’t generally turn his long rambling speeches into something with a clearly understandable meaning without putting words into his mouth, or summarising so aggressively that you’d only say a couple of sentences for every few minutes of speech
I’ve read that deaf or non-English speakers don’t really get to understand just how stupid trump really is because it’s impossible to accurately translate his nonsense babbling.
Can’t many deaf people read? I think the trancripts often make the rambling seem even worse.
Hah, yes, I meant usually newspapers make him seem coherent in print. You’re right, I have read some transcripts that are just undecipherable.
Kind of true if you just read news headlines as well. Lots of sane washing occurs around Trump where he’ll say something absolutely batshit insane and the media picks it apart to make it sound like a cohesive policy.
I’m Deaf and I don’t need much to see how stupid he is. However I can’t say the same among some folks in the Deaf community though.
Haha how do you feel that he could actually come across as even stupider than that
Nothing he could do would surprise me about his stupidity.
I think just translating word by word what he says is the best way to bring across what he is trying to say anyways. its not like there is deeper structures that need to be conveyed.
I understand though, that it is difficult to do, if you are used to turning eloquence into eloquence.
But you then need to unlearn a lifetime and career of pattern recognition.
I think this is honestly how Trump gets people who haven’t learned critical thinking. It’s all vibes and insinuation, so it sucks you into finishing his thoughts for him. And you think, “well actually that sounds reasonable”, because of course it does, because it sounds like you.
It exploits your natural impulse to meet the other person halfway and do the work for them. But Trump isn’t trying at all, he’s just doing pure word-association, and he’s not your friend. I think anyone who’s prone to unhealthy parasocial bonding is especially vulnerable to it.
I remember hearing his speeches when he was first coming to power and realising how seductive that pull was. I was constantly having to slap my own hand away from taking charge of where the sentences were going, and really pay attention to what he was actually saying, and it was always nonsense with a healthy dose of hatred, but usually couched in language that sounded vaguely personable, like, “Hey, we’re all friends here, you get it, what I’m saying, right?”
If you already agreed with him, it would be easy.
This Nerdwriter video helped me understand his approach to speaking. https://youtu.be/_aFo_BV-UzI
But different languages don’t always have word for word translations. And what about sentence structure? When he says things out of order how do you directly translate that to a language structured completely different from real English and his version of “English?”
Subtitles would be easier
“Because I know that [incoherent blathering] [nonsensical mouth noises] and then we”
This is not just an issue in translation. Anybody who summarises his speeches in English will struggle to extract the meaning. Reporting should always mention this issue in the first line. A disclaimer like: «it’s difficult to make heads or tails from Trumps speech do to his incoherent speech. Below is our best attempt.» should be a preface to all reporting.