Chirstin Stephens
SPAN 480R MW 5:30-6:45
Translation #1
Source Text (Written by me)
“If we don’t understand expectations, life can be frustrating. One source of frustration I’ve
seen is the expectation held by women that they expect men to automatically know what
they want or need. However, many times these desires are not verbalized. For example,
driving past a restaurant on their way home from an activity, my mom turned to my dad and
asked him if he wanted to buy a drink. He didn’t, so he said no. My mom was upset most of
the way home because she did want to stop and buy a drink.
This leads me to one thing that men expect from women. I think men would appreciate
women to simply tell them what they want, rather than indirectly asking a question or giving
subtle clues to things that they would like.”
Machine Translation (Translated by Google Translate)
“Si no entendemos las expectativas, la vida puede ser frustrante. Una fuente de frustración
que he visto es la expectativa de poder de las mujeres que esperan a los hombres a
conocer automáticamente lo que quieren o necesitan. Sin embargo, muchas veces estos
deseos no se verbalizan. Por ejemplo, conduciendo más allá de un restaurante en su casa
después de una actividad, mi mamá se volvió hacia mi padre y le preguntó si quería
comprar una bebida. No lo hizo, así que él dijo que no. Mi mamá estaba molesta la mayor
parte del camino a casa porque ella quería parar y comprar una bebida.
Esto me lleva a una cosa que los hombres esperan de las mujeres. Creo que los hombres
que aprecian a las mujeres simplemente decirles lo que quieren, y no indirectamente hacer
una pregunta o dar pistas sutiles a las cosas que les gustaría.”
Human Translation (Translated by me)
“Si no entendemos cuáles son las expectativas de otras personas, la vida se puede poner
frustrante. Una fuente de frustación que he visto es la expectativa que la mujer tiene en la
cual piensa que el hombre automáticamente debe saber lo que ella quiere o necesita. Pero,
muchas veces estos deseos no se han verbalizado. Por ejemplo, al manejar por un
restaurante en camino a casa de una actividad, mi mama le preguntó a mi papá si él quería
comprar un refresco. No quiso, y le dijo que no. Mi mamá estaba molesta durante mucho
del camino a casa porque ella sí quería comprar un refresco.
Eso me lleva a una cosa que el hombre espera de la mujer. Pienso que el hombre le
agradecería a la mujer si ella simplemente le dijera lo que ella quiere, en vez de hacerle
una pregunta indirectamente o darle unas pistas sútiles para las cosas que ella quiere
tener.”
Differences between Human and Machine Translation
1. There was a difference in the way verbs were chosen. The source text states that some
women expect men to know what they want. “To know” in Spanish can be expressed with
one of two verbs, each conveying a different type of knowledge. The computer was
probably not programmed to understand the context relating to each form of “to know” and
picked the wrong one. In my translation, I chose “saber” which is connected to objects or
subjects, where Google Translate picked “conocer”, which is often connected to people.
Another example of choosing different verbs is in the last paragraph. However, the verb
chosen by the machine doesn’t alter the meaning from the verb I picked in this instance. I
used “creer” and the machine used “pensar”, which essentially could be read the same way
in the sentence.
2. There was an instance in which the meaning was entirely changed by changing a simple
preposition. The source text relays the idea that my parents are driving past a restaurant on
their way home when something happens. Google Translate’s translation says they were
driving past a restaurant in their house. My translation says “en camino a su casa” (to their
house) and Google Translate’s says “conduciendo más allá de un restaurante en su casa”
(in their house).
3. Due to some ambiguity, there was a loss of meaning. In the source text there is an idea
introduced in one sentence, and referred to in a following sentence. It appears that the
machine translation was not able to convey that. The source text said “my mom turned to
my dad and asked him if he wanted to buy a drink. He didn’t, so he said no.” The part that
was a mistranslation was the end part, “He didn’t, so he said no.” Google Translate
translated “didn’t” in the sense of the verb “to do”, using “no lo hizo”. That translation literally
says “he didn’t”, but doesn’t make sense in the context. My translation was “No lo quiso”
referring to the drink, literally saying “he didn’t want one”, which is inferred in the source text,
but lost in the Google translation.
4. The machine translation was a very close translation to the original in most instances,
keeping the word order almost exactly the same. The source text said “rather than indirectly
asking a question”, and Google translated it as “indirectamente hacer una pregunta”. I
switched the words around a little and used the adjective after the verb: “hacerle una
pregunta indirectamente”.
Similarities between Human and Machine Translation
1.There were a lot of words that I picked that were the same as the ones that the machine
picked. For example, I used the word “expectativas” for “expectations” and so did Google
Translate. Other significant words that were the same were “frustrante”, “sutiles”, and
“molesta”.
2. The structure of some phrasing was maintained in the same manner. To convey the idea
that my mother was bothered I used the same translation as Google Translate: “Mi mamá
estaba molesta”. Other phrases that were structured the same were “una fuente de
frustracion” and “por ejemplo”.
3. There was an instance in which the word order was the same, even though the word
choice changed a little. (These changes in word choice didn’t effect the meaning of the
sentence, much like using “however” instead of ‘but”.) One such example is this sentence:
“Sin embargo, muchas veces estos deseos no se verbalizan.” I switched out a few words,
but the composition of the sentence was the same.