About: You Are the Translated Foreign Word   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : owl:Thing, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

Sometimes to add some cultural flavor to a destiny the name has to be foreign—she is nosferatu; he is allaku. The problem is that this means nothing to the audience (And sometimes nothing to people native to the "exotic" culture), so a quick translation is provided afterwards. These people start out Not Using the Z-Word, but then use it anyway. A possible breakdown of Translator Microbes, which may be deliberately caused to handle "untranslatable" words. See also Call a Rabbit a Smeerp and This Is My Name on Foreign. See also the Department of Redundancy Department.

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  • You Are the Translated Foreign Word
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  • Sometimes to add some cultural flavor to a destiny the name has to be foreign—she is nosferatu; he is allaku. The problem is that this means nothing to the audience (And sometimes nothing to people native to the "exotic" culture), so a quick translation is provided afterwards. These people start out Not Using the Z-Word, but then use it anyway. A possible breakdown of Translator Microbes, which may be deliberately caused to handle "untranslatable" words. See also Call a Rabbit a Smeerp and This Is My Name on Foreign. See also the Department of Redundancy Department.
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dbkwik:all-the-tro...iPageUsesTemplate
dbkwik:allthetrope...iPageUsesTemplate
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  • Sometimes to add some cultural flavor to a destiny the name has to be foreign—she is nosferatu; he is allaku. The problem is that this means nothing to the audience (And sometimes nothing to people native to the "exotic" culture), so a quick translation is provided afterwards. "She is nosferatu" becomes "she is nosferatu, a vampire", and "he is allaku" becomes "He is allaku, a messenger. He walks the night road". This is effectively the person saying the same thing two or three times, which is fine if they're explaining to someone who doesn't know the word but kind of silly-looking if they aren't. Extra points if the character is saying it to themselves, making the spoken translation all the more gratuitous. These people start out Not Using the Z-Word, but then use it anyway. A possible breakdown of Translator Microbes, which may be deliberately caused to handle "untranslatable" words. See also Call a Rabbit a Smeerp and This Is My Name on Foreign. Keep in mind that as far as translation theory goes, this isn't really saying the same thing twice, it's more like saying: "Here are some cultural concepts you are familiar with that are similar to what I just said." Similar to how most synonyms have similar meanings but still have different connotations, a word spoken in its native language has a lot of cultural baggage and connotation beyond its simple denotation. Some translators (if they're feeling snarky) if asked what a word means in another language, will respond with that word in that same language. For example: "What does 'bocadillo' mean?" "It means 'bocadillo'." Usually, though they'll simply state "it depends on the context." This is because, while a word may be translated simply, in this case as "sandwich", it doesn't necessarily mean "sandwich" in the way you are used to. Continuing the example, in Spain, while "bocadillo" does mean "sandwich", it's referring to a sandwich more similar to, but not necessarily the exact same thing as, what an American would call a "sub", "hoagie", "grinder", "hero", or whatever your local variation of the word is. In the end, 'bocadillo' can easily mean "snack", and apply in a wide variety of contexts, except there are some areas where "snack" is used to represent something more specific or entirely different from " a small portion of food eaten between meals" and there are some areas where "bocadillo" is also used to represent something completely different from even FOOD, such as a thin canvas or a simplified version of certain phrases made by an actor or a speech bubble in comics, or even where it is used to mean food, but more like a sweet than anything with bread or meat in it. See also the Department of Redundancy Department. Examples of You Are the Translated Foreign Word include:
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