One of the difficulties of translating Trump’s tweets is honestly that he uses such childish and informal grammar that the translator is almost at risk of not sounding entirely credible. [You’d lose face]. He also has a tendency to use a lot of buzzwords and even slang that could be tricky to translate coherently into Japanese.

This woman is bang on. There was a good bit on John Oliver about this just the other day, and before bass4funk or someone starts balking about the "liberal media" and the "whatabouts" as their deflection, Oliver quotes Trump VERBATIM, and then shows what happens when you take an iPhone and make a long speech starting with only one word and hitting whatever comes up next in predictive text; the iPhone made a more literate speech than Trump's was.

If you read her comments in context, (see link above in Browny1's post) she is not complaining but just answering a question truthfully. Actually the whole article is good.

Trump would be a nightmare to render into Japanese with the correct amount of ambiguity. I guess with enough practice you could get to be a dab hand at it.

My god dude, you have a lot to say. I’m not gunna bother reading and watching all that stuff. I stand by my statement that while Trump is a looney to me and says ridiculous things that yes, are hard to translate, I did have an original point when posting.

The media does after everything Trump and that’s not really smart as it proves their bias and hypocrisy. Trump is not untranslatable.

Why are you trying to get me to show you how I would do it?

A rap song or script that uses a lot of slang would also be hard and challenging to translate, but if you can’t actually do it, up your skills or move on.

Hey - half my post above disappeared.

I was supporting japan-guy's post, as you could choose any number of 100's of Trump's bleats and while translatable, their coherence and meaning in direct translation is easily befuddling to readers/listeners of the translated material.

Did nobody ever watch the Apprentice ? 

In Japan? Likely not. I've heard of it, vaguely, since he started campaigning, never actually seen it.

Surely people by now have realised what he is like and always has been . Did nobody ever watch the Apprentice ? Why are they so surprised ? Because they underestimated the American public and ignoring them and insulting Trump is not going to make him go away . The man's an idiot . But hey the tweets are hilarious ...just laugh at him ...someone is going to make a lot of money with the book

I’ve seen a video with my own eyes, in which he claims, literally, to have invented the word “fake”.

After realising just how ridiculous that sounds, he semi-concedes, “Maybe some other folk were saying it. I didn’t hear them.”

Remarkable.

"...Unfortunately, the problem is not just his tweets though is it?

                                It's every time he talks without a scriptwriter...."

Which seems to suggest (to me anyway), that this phenomenon is occurring regularly, so this time he gave just one example. Finding other examples to support the discussed notion about Trump's malleable word-smithing is in the easy basket. They abound.

Jpn guy

You ask what’s others have “learnt in school” while claiming not to be rude and then posting a paragraph about trump, editing it, doing a self analysis, and then declaring you have an accurate assessment based on the one paragraph you chose then posted?

Funny stuff.

so called smarts (lol) pride and that’s it. 1000 legislative seats lost, but at least the libs have all that education and it shows. well you know those same type of people are the scientist entrepreneurs doctors engineers etc that designed the machines/medicines/companies that make America what it is today. Where the vast majority of Americas tax revenues are generated to fund the welfare states. The rest well they just lose their jobs to China because they can do the same thing much cheaper. The moral of the story is get yourself educated with skills that arent easily replaced and stop bitching because other did.

Strangerland

”Say whaaaat?”

So you seem to agree that an enterpreter should get away with not speaking the language? I speak English and Japanese and have no problem explaining to another what anyone has said, including Donald Trump.

It’s a loaded statement meant to bash Trump from an angle.

If your attitude is like Trump (its up to others to decifer wtf i mean rather than me properly organizing my thoughts and convey them, and if they misinterpret, its completely their fault) then it would be easy to be a translater for trump.

In the case of Trump, that means the Japanese output may sound childish, disjointed, illogical, etc. Naturally, many readers will blame this on the translator because they could never imagine that an important public figure would have such a poor command of language.

Although I agree with the first part of your analysis I do think that you, as well as Shizuka Anderson and a few other posters on here, grossly underestimate 'us' the general public. Most ppl know that DT has a (very) limited yet colourful vocabulary as local journos have been commenting on that since day 1 so no one would assume professional translators have suddenly become incompetent.

As another professional translator chiming in, I agree that there seems to be some misunderstanding regarding the translator's role. The translator is not a copy editor; their job is not to polish the writing, refine the word choices, add things that are missing, etc. Their job is to convey the original content, tone, and style as FAITHFULLY and ACCURATELY as possible. In the case of Trump, that means the Japanese output may sound childish, disjointed, illogical, etc. Naturally, many readers will blame this on the translator because they could never imagine that an important public figure would have such a poor command of language.

childish to mean means simple as does informal grammar. but to each his own.

...Arrest my case.

browny1, good article linked in your post above. :thumbsup:

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

Why wouldnt she be able to translate this? would take some effort to find out who is Crooked Hillary and who is Alicia M and for what purpose Hillary would have helped her to become a US citizen, then you translate it.

You are missing my point. The tweet can be translated but I don't see the point in wasting time on this garbage. You are talking about someone calling a woman disgusting and asking people to search for a sex tape which doesn't exist. This is steaming, revolting crap which no person should waste time and effort translating accurately.

It's like trying to accurately capture in words the sound of someone breaking wind.

and by the way, the topic is his TWEETS. So yeah wouldnt be any complete sentences, complete thoughts or standard grammar. But whatever fits the Trump is stupid narrative, go for it.

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

Why wouldnt she be able to translate this? would take some effort to find out who is Crooked Hillary and who is Alicia M and for what purpose Hillary would have helped her to become a US citizen, then you translate it.

childish to mean means simple as does informal grammar. but to each his own. If you cant translate it, then dont work as a translator or leave it to someone who can. very unprofessional to insult someone just because it makes your own job a little harder to do.

It’s so simple

Where does she claim it's 'simple'? She says 'childish and informal grammar', which is a polite way of saying his grammar is all over the place, i.e. he doesn't speak in joined-up sentences like a grown-up.

It’s so simple yet she can’t translate it? Needs another type of work then.

"These professional translators who translate everyone else's comments without troubles can't translate our president's comments? They must be incompetent. It's not possible our president could just be a moron"

Facepalm.

It’s so simple yet she can’t translate it? Needs another type of work then.

agree with her

Here’s an example of a tweet which falls into the categories of lies and trash:

Did Crooked Hillary help disgusting (check out sex tape and past) Alicia M become a U.S. citizen so she could use her in the debate?

What a waste of time and education it is to have educated, professional people translating this rancid trash. It’s an insult. I wouldn’t give this to sub-tabloid idiocy to the very literate translator who translates my stuff.

As I said, just give the flavour of it. Wasting time trying to translate this rank stupidity accurately is a waste of the human intellect. There are better things to do.

The crunch is, not as some suggest that a professional translator should be able to translate, but rather the disbelief in the readers/listeners minds that the translation is accurate.

Why?

Because Trump's tweets and blurts, while translatable of course, often defy timing, sense, word knowledge or logic at that particular moment, and so people believe the translator has made a mistake.

Literally it seems, people can't believe a US President would say such things or in such a manner - which then all falls back onto the translator.

Thats not fact, and if it were, the problem would be with the translator, not the speaker. Some are easier to translate, some are more intelligent, others are well...like Donald Trump. But don’t tell me you are bi lingual and then state you can’t translate.

I agree, if you can’t translate what Trump says or basic English, then you need to look for another line of work.

I wonder how many of the 'a real translator can translate Trump no problem' crowd actually earn their living as translators.

The aim of a good translation is to convey the meaning of what the subject is saying. If the subject is simply blowing hot air (not only Trump, a lot of copy-writing also falls into this category), it's often impossible to provide a truly faithful translation because you cannot translate something that has no meaning in the first place.

With Trump you have the added problem that his speech/twittering is often ungrammatical and ambiguous. If a tweet can be taken in more than one way, which meaning do you translate? Whichever you choose, you're making a political decision that is not yours to make.

And as the quote points out, translate Trump into Japanese at the same childish level as his English tends to be, and you run the risk of ruining your own reputation as a translator; after all, no one (in Japan) expects a president to sound like a three-year-old, and it's likely the poor translation (which would actually be a perfectly accurate translation) would be seen to be the fault of the translator.

Speaking as a true professional translator (well qualified and bilingual) , I would not relish the task of translating Trump's infantile twitterings.

Rubbish in, rubbish out.

@thepersoniamnow - I agree with you completely. I do in fact dislike Trump and feel he is not qualified for office. I also feel he should not be Tweeting.

However you are 100% correct, a true professional translator (well qualified) could translate his tweets with no problem.

You are mixing your disdain for Trump with the issues.

The issue is that an enterpreter is stating that Trump is untranslatable.

Thats not fact, and if it were, the problem would be with the translator, not the speaker. Some are easier to translate, some are more intelligent, others are well...like Donald Trump. But don’t tell me you are bi lingual and then state you can’t translate.

Trump’s tweets basically fall into the categories of grandstanding, lies, trash and stupid s### although some tweets could fall into more than one category. I’m not sure how much it is necessary to translate this nonsense word for word - it’s not as if the non-English speaking world is going to be enriched by reading a gem of wit and literary style. 

Just give the repulsive flavour of them if you have to.

Ok, so the pompous, so called educated elites worry more about the Tweets than the overall message? Liberals think for some reason a piece of sheepskin makes them credible and the smartest tool in the shed. If you live to hear and feed off people that know the Webster dictionary in and out, that’s your prerogative, many of us care more about the action than the blabbering words of some empty suit college elite adjunct professor that is all talk and substance. At the end of the liberals have just that, so called smarts (lol) pride and that’s it. 1000 legislative seats lost, but at least the libs have all that education and it shows. Lol

Trump’s tweets basically fall into the categories of grandstanding, lies, trash and stupid s### although some tweets could fall into more than one category. I’m not sure how much it is necessary to translate this nonsense word for word - it’s not as if the non-English speaking world is going to be enriched by reading a gem of wit and literary style.

Just give the repulsive flavour of them if you have to.

The quote is from a longer article by Jake Adelstein which explains a little more succinctly the difficulty of getting one's head around Trump's words.

thedailybeast.com/trumps-japan-visit-was-yes-lost-in-translation

This is an interpreter, but she is talking about translating tweets.

Conversion on the fly, i.e., interpreting, has a wide error of margin that accounts for the fast response time required. Sometimes it's enough to express the general sentiment of the comment.

Conversion of the written word, i.e., translation, does not have such severe time constraints and should have a narrow margin of error. Slang and buzzwords should not throw any translator, who should be competent and diligent enough to look for the best translation. Covfefe aside, the issue I guess with Trump is that his tweets lack the decorum people usually associate with a leader. Translations that give his tweets such decorum in another language are, in my opinion, mistranslations. I think it would be entirely appropriate to translate Trump using childish expressions like "iya da" in Japanese.

If the interpreter was truly “professional” and bi lingual he or she would have no literal problem translating it.

Say what? Half the time what he says in English is mostly gibberish, and empty without substance. Trying to force that into Japanese on the fly would be ridiculously hard, if not impossible.

Politicized statement. If the interpreter was truly “professional” and bi lingual he or she would have no literal problem translating it.

Now maybe they would feel averse to translating it, but that’s a whole different story.

Hmm. We have the same problem in America....