Blame It On the Bossa Nova
I love how on Star Trek: The Next Generation, humanoid aliens from the far reaches of the galaxy talk to each other in perfect English. This is, of course, done with the help of a largely unseen device called the "Universal Translator." The translator is so ubiquitous that it basically goes unsung and unnoticed, to the point where it isn't even mentioned as a problem when it seems to fail horribly (see the episode where Data has to go off and learn sign language because a deaf negotiator has lost his "chorus").
I bring all this up to illustrate a point - the reason universal translation is so good in the 23rd century is because they'd already gone through the 21st century. Tranlation just ain't there yet.
I came across an interesting looking blog called "booksmart/streetstupid," which turns out to be written in Portuguese. No big deal, I'll just go to Altavista and use Babelfish to translate! Baaaad idea. To say that colloquial Portuguese confuses the Babelfish robot is exquisite understatement.
This paragraph looked particularly interesting:
Ganhei minha tão almejada camiseta Enjoy Cock que tinha visto há mais de mil anos na Björk. Meu irmão ficou bem chocado. Perguntou se eu realmente iria vesti-la. E por que não? Bom, isso veio de um ser humano que acha vulgar carcinhas divertidas. Ele deve achar bom fio dental comestível. Yuck. Mas adentrar um puteiro da Augusta com tal camiseta não provocou reação alguma. Também.. duh. Vou fazer uma versão ipsis literis: Beba Rola. Quem sabe? Mas que diabos eu faria num puteiro de novo? Não. Fiquei com muito medo de uma puta com uma comissão de frente sufocante só de ver e dentes tão grandes quanto.
The Babelfish said:
I gained mine so longed for t-shirt Enjoy Cock that it had seen more than has a thousand years in the Björk. My brother was shocked well. He asked if I really would go vestiz it. E why not? Good, this lode of one for human being that it finds carcinhas vulgar amused. It must find good dental wire eatable. Yuck. But to adentrar a puteiro of the August with such t-shirt did not provoke reaction some. Also. duh. I go to make a version ipsis literis: It drinks Rolls. Who knows? But that devils I would make in a puteiro of new? Not. I was with much fear of one puta with a commission of suffocating front to only see and teeth so great how much.
Then I said:
Brazilians must be insane! So crazy, so sexy, so ...untranslatable, so ...thousand years in the Björk.
I bring all this up to illustrate a point - the reason universal translation is so good in the 23rd century is because they'd already gone through the 21st century. Tranlation just ain't there yet.
I came across an interesting looking blog called "booksmart/streetstupid," which turns out to be written in Portuguese. No big deal, I'll just go to Altavista and use Babelfish to translate! Baaaad idea. To say that colloquial Portuguese confuses the Babelfish robot is exquisite understatement.
This paragraph looked particularly interesting:
Ganhei minha tão almejada camiseta Enjoy Cock que tinha visto há mais de mil anos na Björk. Meu irmão ficou bem chocado. Perguntou se eu realmente iria vesti-la. E por que não? Bom, isso veio de um ser humano que acha vulgar carcinhas divertidas. Ele deve achar bom fio dental comestível. Yuck. Mas adentrar um puteiro da Augusta com tal camiseta não provocou reação alguma. Também.. duh. Vou fazer uma versão ipsis literis: Beba Rola. Quem sabe? Mas que diabos eu faria num puteiro de novo? Não. Fiquei com muito medo de uma puta com uma comissão de frente sufocante só de ver e dentes tão grandes quanto.
The Babelfish said:
I gained mine so longed for t-shirt Enjoy Cock that it had seen more than has a thousand years in the Björk. My brother was shocked well. He asked if I really would go vestiz it. E why not? Good, this lode of one for human being that it finds carcinhas vulgar amused. It must find good dental wire eatable. Yuck. But to adentrar a puteiro of the August with such t-shirt did not provoke reaction some. Also. duh. I go to make a version ipsis literis: It drinks Rolls. Who knows? But that devils I would make in a puteiro of new? Not. I was with much fear of one puta with a commission of suffocating front to only see and teeth so great how much.
Then I said:
Brazilians must be insane! So crazy, so sexy, so ...untranslatable, so ...thousand years in the Björk.
after reading this passage in portuguese, i still don't know if it's continental or brazilian portuguese. though, looking at the grammar, i think it's continental portuguese.
The sentence "perguntou se eu realmente iria vesti-la" which translates to "he asked if i was really going to wear it," and the way the indirect object in the sentence is placed that it's continental portuguese. if this were brasilian portuguese, it would be "se preguntou su eu realmente iria la vesti"...
then again i would just be pulling this all out of my mental ass.
-r2
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