Here comes the project introduction…
Facts:
# An American realtor emails to his Russian partner: “Let’s meet on Zoom to finalize the details of the transaction on 06.07.” The Russian answers “Ok” as he reads the same translated by AI, but thinks that the date of the meeting is the 6th of July, while the American meant the 7th of June! The thing is that Americans write “Month.Day”, but Russians do “Day.Month”, and no AI takes this cultural nuance into consideration. Result: no meeting, maybe no deal, just disappointment.
# An American businessman emails to his foreign partners using an idiom and AI translations (EN>AR>RU): “Plans are still up in the air” (meaning that he hasn’t decided yet), but on the receiving end his business partners read - in back translation into English - “Plans are still outdoors” (thinking why wouldn’t the American bring his plans into the room… and what should they do about it now?)
# Another business email from an American to his foreign partners using an idiom and AI translation (EN>EST>RU): “I’d like to quickly touch base with you” thinking of a quick exchange of ideas, but his foreign partners actually read - in back translation into English - “I’d like to touch panel with you” with a great astonishment that the American offers them to touch together… some wall? board? painting? or what?…
# “1-bedroom” or “1-bed” or “1 b/r” in American English means an apartment with a bedroom and a living room which in Russian would be called “2-room”. You can see AI-translated listings where it says “1-room” or even “one bed” which is not just confusing, but actually would make the advertising money spent uselessly after all, as nobody is going to read further about a dwelling which contains only 1 bed (why?).
# “Infinity pool” in English has no good equivalent in Russian, and AI translations that you might see in real estate listings for sale are awkward or not really true - like “pool with no end” (what’s that?). Solution: toss in the target text something like “large pool where you enjoy direct ocean views while swimming” (or similar depending on the environment).
# American measurements “square feet, yards and miles” are not changed into “square meters, meters and kilometers” in Russian while listings are AI translated, and potential foreign buyers might be turned away as they don’t understand the real sizes of the property for sale as well as its distance from the airport, etc.
From Olga Kellen, English-and-Russian.com
Here come the next cases of an AI translation error… etc… etc..
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