E-Discovery Tip Sheet
Strong Language
He has not translated it at all; he has simply mixed it all up; it is no more like
the Jumping Frog when he gets through with it than I am like a meridian of longitude.
-- Mark Twain, from “The Jumping Frog: In English, Then In French, Then Clawed Back
Into A Civilized Language Once More by Patient, Unremunerated Toil”
In 1865, Mark Twain encountered an article by a French critic claiming not to see
the humor in Twain’s classic story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras
County.” His reading of the author’s translation moved him to a little experiment: He
translated the French translation back into English, word-for-word. Anyone familiar
with Twain’s highly colloquial narration has a fair idea of the task before the translator,
nowhere better seen than in this key line:
Original: ‘Well,” he says, ‘I don’t see no p’ints about that frog that’s any better’n any other
frog.’
Back Translation (Twain’s translation from the French): “Eh bien! I no saw not that that
frog had nothing of better than each frog.”
[See Trusted Translations, “Mark Twain’s back translation,” posted October 27, 2008 by
sarab - http://translation-blog.trustedtranslations.com/mark-twains-back-translation2008-10-27.html]
Verbal humor is notoriously difficult to translate, a point well underscored by
Twain as both a humorist and a keen observer of language. But we require no less
understanding, and even more clarity, from documents translated for litigation.
That’s Easy for You to Say
We live in an age of unprecedented international commerce, coinciding with the
beginnings of Star Trek-style universal translators. A recent Google search for
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“universal translator app” turned up about 263,000 results. Most of these run on
handheld Apple iPhone or Google Android devices, and are available either for free or
for not much more out of pocket than a New York City bus fare.
These applications take typed text or spoken words and translate from one
selected language to another selected language. One can take a snapshot of a sign and,
if clear enough, Google will transliterate read it back in one’s own language. There is
also the option of simply typing a phrase in Google and asking it to translate as you
choose. This removes a lot of anxiety about asking for directions, or the location of the
nearest water closet, when traveling in foreign lands.
It is amusing to see some user comments about such software. “SUCKS!...”
jumped out, notwithstanding how remarkable it is that this technology exists at all in
any broadly usable form. (The principal complaint is generally poor audio recognition,
which seems more a limitation of the device audio driver more than the software itself.)
As Louis CK reminds airline passengers distraught over dropped on-board WiFi,
remember that you’re sitting in a chair flying 500 miles per hour at over 30,000 feet.
What Did You Mean By That?
The bad news about these automated solutions is that they are not sufficiently
precise to serve contractual or litigation purposes. Where precise meanings are of
paramount importance – think of our English future verbs “will” and “shall” in
ascending strength of assertion – a human translator must be involved to properly
specify or ascertain the intended meaning. Idiomatic expressions, dialects, homonyms
and other linguistic twists may also need to be resolved by expert eyes to interpret or
analyze an agreement.
Sometimes, even fluency in the language is not enough. A prime example:
Japanese language is very closely interwoven with Japanese social customs. Among
these customs is something known as aizuchi, loosely translated as “supportive
feedback”. In Japanese conversation, these brief responses (such as hai, or “yes) indicate
that the listener is engaged in what the speaker is saying; the “yes” means Right, uh-huh,
indeed, gotcha, I’m following – but not specifically Yes as in I agree. If these interlocutions
are not supplied, a native Japanese speaker will unhappily conclude that you are not
listening.
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But what if the conversation went well, and you heard agreeable sounds that
seemed to invite a follow-up? This is from the wonderful Be Careful of the Meaningless
“Yes” and the Hidden “No” article from Japanese-Language.Aiyori.Org:
前向きに考えます
考えておきます
In business world, when you hear a Japanese say
(We open our mind
(We’ll try our best),
(We will think about it),
to it),
(Please let us study it) or other similar phrases, he is rejecting
you politely, trying not to hurt your feeling with a direct rejection. You should NOT call
him next week and ask him about the progress of his study, because he will never do
any study.
努力してみます
討させていただきます
検
The author, Wing, indicates that hints of actual approval will appear as questions and
comments on further details of the topic under discussion.
Demurral may also considerately be expressed as ellipses, as seen at the end of
Well, I would like to, but I will have to be away…. Don’t bother pressing for when this
condition will not apply. If reviewing such a conversation thread in discovery, there
will be no follow-up from the Japanese party on this matter.
The moral is that there is more to translation than can be captured by software.
We develop rich languages to express what is important to us, in commercial, personal,
national, social, and spiritual terms specific or inferred. We can gain basic
understanding of written and spoken language with technical or professional help and
experience, but it takes a much longer time to become immersed in the other’s context,
to “dream in French,” as I was once told. (Here’s something else to think about: unless
you speak Aramean and have access to original texts, you are necessarily relying on two
millennia of unknown translators when trying to interpret the Bible. Interesting, no?)
To Review
International litigation may involve terabytes of electronic discovery, which
pretty much eliminates a thorough reading of all content. A review tool can help
foreign language reviewers to winnow down and search foreign language documents,
as long as it can deal with multiple languages in general and the particular foreign
language alphabet(s) in question.
Where the language is Romantic or Germanic, a few accents might be lost in
simple processing, indexing and rendering, but the basic text would be readable and
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searchable. Where the language is expressed in an alphabet requiring more than one
byte (8 bits) to express a character, the complexity increases greatly. First, all software
used must handle Unicode text, which supports richer alphabets such as are used in
Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Hebrew, and Russian, for example. The indexing
engine must be able to prepare a dictionary and search any language, or multiple
languages at the same time, and ideally be able to report which languages it finds in
each document; this helps in assigning appropriate documents to the right linguistic
reviewers. Beware limitations, too: some software can only address two or so
languages per database or document.
Of course, you would also want any tools that work in English, such as near
duplicate detection, clustering, relevance scoring and like technology assisted review
processes, to run with your various languages. Lastly, don’t forget that date formats
may be expressed differently (such as DDMMYYYY) in different locales.
So in addition to considering the various Safe Harbor and other issues involved
with international negotiation and litigation, take the time to properly understand
whether that frog had nothing of better than each frog.
-- Andy Kass
[email protected]
917-512-7503
The views expressed in this E-Discovery Tip Sheet are solely the views of the author, and do not necessarily
represent the opinion of U.S. Legal Support, Inc.
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