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How to dimmer rice?
Thread poster: Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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Apr 28, 2016

Here is a thing.

I bought a pack of sushi rice so I took a look at the instructions at the back. There were two translation options, Bulgarian and English. Of course, I was following the English version.

Excerpt from the second step:

...put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat, and dimmer for 10 minutes.

Now, this is an expensive, branded, Italian, rice. It was tasty though, perhaps the secret is in the dimmering?

What do you t
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Here is a thing.

I bought a pack of sushi rice so I took a look at the instructions at the back. There were two translation options, Bulgarian and English. Of course, I was following the English version.

Excerpt from the second step:

...put a lid on the pan, reduce the heat, and dimmer for 10 minutes.

Now, this is an expensive, branded, Italian, rice. It was tasty though, perhaps the secret is in the dimmering?

What do you think?

As a consumer of translation this time, I feel really cheated. We are not allowed to name agencies, but are we allowed to name brands? What about the consumer rights?

Or am I getting something wrong, is this rice dimmering a newly coined English term?
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Sergei Leshchinsky
Sergei Leshchinsky  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 15:29
Member (2008)
English to Russian
+ ...
Apr 28, 2016

simmer

 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Clearly. Apr 28, 2016

Sergei Leshchinsky wrote:

simmer


Yes, of course, it's clear what it was meant to be there, but what is really there? Can't an expensive brand invest in proofreading before printing out their labels?


 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:29
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
You mean you are not satisfied with the human translator? Apr 28, 2016

I'm guessing that only a human would make an error like that, so at least they are trying to get things right.

A real person does the translation.
Then they run it through the spelling checker, which does not find any mis-spelt words.

A combination of human AND machine - more do you want? Enjoy your rice in romantic candlelight - it conjures up lots of ideas.
But not precisely what was intended.

...
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I'm guessing that only a human would make an error like that, so at least they are trying to get things right.

A real person does the translation.
Then they run it through the spelling checker, which does not find any mis-spelt words.

A combination of human AND machine - more do you want? Enjoy your rice in romantic candlelight - it conjures up lots of ideas.
But not precisely what was intended.

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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Our rice. Apr 28, 2016

Christine Andersen wrote:

I'm guessing that only a human would make an error like that, so at least they are trying to get things right.

A real person does the translation.
Then they run it through the spelling checker, which does not find any mis-spelt words.

A combination of human AND machine - more do you want? Enjoy your rice in romantic candlelight - it conjures up lots of ideas.
But not precisely what was intended.





Our rice is 4-5 times more expensive than any other rice on the shelf. Why?

1. It tastes really good.
2. We use Sci-Fi words in descriptions (inspired by SF).


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:29
English to German
But it goes further ... Apr 28, 2016

it damages their reputation.

Is it really all that great if they don't spot that before it goes on millions of packages?


 
Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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TOPIC STARTER
Exactely. Apr 28, 2016

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

it damages their reputation.

Is it really all that great if they don't spot that before it goes on millions of packages?


Now, for brands, there is something called "bad press" and bad Internet reviews. I really do not have complaints regarding the taste (it was excellent, and I used this brand before for other types of rice), however, how on Earth can they allow such silly mistakes resulting from the cheapest people working on the content, while their retail rice price is so high???


 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:29
German to English
Will you buy the rice next time? Apr 28, 2016

I guess that's the real question.

There are many things where it makes sense to invest a lot money in translations, a lot of things it makes sense to invest a little money in translations, and a lot of things that shouldn't be translated.

How innovative is the packaging design? Is the packaging environmentally friendly? Is their advertising innovative or amusing? Do they buy rice from farms with reasonable working conditions? Do they pay their employees well? Do they d
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I guess that's the real question.

There are many things where it makes sense to invest a lot money in translations, a lot of things it makes sense to invest a little money in translations, and a lot of things that shouldn't be translated.

How innovative is the packaging design? Is the packaging environmentally friendly? Is their advertising innovative or amusing? Do they buy rice from farms with reasonable working conditions? Do they pay their employees well? Do they donate a lot of money to good causes? Etc. ... There are a lot of things for businesses to invest money in.

And at least they didn't write something genuinely confusing like "boil." And don't you boil and simmer rice in a "pot" instead of a "pan," or is the stronger distinction there an Americanism?
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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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TOPIC STARTER
The full translation. Apr 28, 2016

Michael Wetzel wrote:

And at least they didn't write something genuinely confusing like "boil." And don't you boil and simmer rice in a "pot" instead of a "pan," or is the stronger distinction there an Americanism?


I gave you just an excerpt with the silliest error, however, the full translation looks like:

1. it's been done by non-native speaker and just an enthusiastic amateur
2. it's been done in a rush (ie. can you do this for us in 15 minutes, they said "yes I can", then it was forwarded straight to the client for printing, without any checks)

OK, they managed to make a critical error in this small 50-word piece? What could we expect from them in a 20k translation?

Now, there is a possibility a client did indeed invest decent money in the translation but it was outsourced to where it is usually being outsourced. That's a possibility. Now they got something bad for big/decent money.

Yes, it looks environmentally friendly and the packaging is cute. It's a paper packaging made from quality paper.

There isn't "original" content I could refer to, just the two translations.

I'm happy with how this rice tastes so there is a possibility I will buy again.



[Edited at 2016-04-28 11:05 GMT]


 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:29
Spanish to English
+ ...
Not an issue Apr 28, 2016

The 's' and 'd' keys are right next to each other on the keyboard. It's a very common human error, nothing to get your knickers in a twist about IMHO.

Yes, it's true that the client or whoever ordered the translation probably didn't bother checking it thoroughly enough, but it's not a world shatteringly important mistake. This type of labelling error is often the source of great hilarity, which can lighten up my day considerably...
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The 's' and 'd' keys are right next to each other on the keyboard. It's a very common human error, nothing to get your knickers in a twist about IMHO.

Yes, it's true that the client or whoever ordered the translation probably didn't bother checking it thoroughly enough, but it's not a world shatteringly important mistake. This type of labelling error is often the source of great hilarity, which can lighten up my day considerably

I once told a client that they had uploaded a text I translated, but they had added an error in the process, changing 'international' to 'intentional' in the name of the organisation (a private university). They said that because it had already been uploaded it was now "official" and they didn't dare (or couldn't be bothered to) change it...
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Lingua 5B
Lingua 5B  Identity Verified
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 14:29
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
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TOPIC STARTER
Yes, I also laughed. Apr 28, 2016

Probably should have been in Lighter side of the translation forum.

"Uploaded" and "printed + distributed to retail stores", is not quite the same lol

The only thing that made me stop and think about this is that they invested in every other aspect but the translation (and no, it's not only one mistake, the full translation is hilarious). Again, perhaps the client paid a lot, and expected good content, but then the agency or intermediary or whoever didn't perform the ch
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Probably should have been in Lighter side of the translation forum.

"Uploaded" and "printed + distributed to retail stores", is not quite the same lol

The only thing that made me stop and think about this is that they invested in every other aspect but the translation (and no, it's not only one mistake, the full translation is hilarious). Again, perhaps the client paid a lot, and expected good content, but then the agency or intermediary or whoever didn't perform the checks they said they would.
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Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:29
English to German
My point was ... Apr 28, 2016

Michael Wetzel wrote:

I guess that's the real question.

There are many things where it makes sense to invest a lot money in translations, a lot of things it makes sense to invest a little money in translations, and a lot of things that shouldn't be translated.

How innovative is the packaging design? Is the packaging environmentally friendly? Is their advertising innovative or amusing? Do they buy rice from farms with reasonable working conditions? Do they pay their employees well? Do they donate a lot of money to good causes? Etc. ... There are a lot of things for businesses to invest money in.

And at least they didn't write something genuinely confusing like "boil." And don't you boil and simmer rice in a "pot" instead of a "pan," or is the stronger distinction there an Americanism?


... if they don't pay any attention to such small details, and investing in decent translator for the labelling of their probably very expensively designed packaging (in comparison to the cost of a translator), do you really expect this "high profile" company to pay any attention or invest in all these other issues?

Or it might just be the mistake of a clueless marketing department.


 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:29
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Exactly! Apr 28, 2016

Lingua 5B wrote:

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

it damages their reputation.

Is it really all that great if they don't spot that before it goes on millions of packages?


Now, for brands, there is something called "bad press" and bad Internet reviews. I really do not have complaints regarding the taste (it was excellent, and I used this brand before for other types of rice), however, how on Earth can they allow such silly mistakes resulting from the cheapest people working on the content, while their retail rice price is so high???


Mistakes happen and everyone makes them occasionally...


 
Michael Wetzel
Michael Wetzel  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:29
German to English
I understand Apr 29, 2016

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

... if they don't pay any attention to such small details, and investing in decent translator for the labelling of their probably very expensively designed packaging (in comparison to the cost of a translator), do you really expect this "high profile" company to pay any attention or invest in all these other issues?

Or it might just be the mistake of a clueless marketing department.



That is a logically plausible conclusion, but I don't know if it is practically valid.

I'm sure that of the dozens of groups of specialists that are likely to have a strong and informed opinion about some aspect of the product, several of them will be able to find some genuine shortcoming analogous to the glaring typo and generally poor quality of the English translation.

I don't think that is likely to stand in any relationship at all to the quality of the rice. Lots of things have to be done to get that rice from being a seed in the ground to a grain of rice in someone's belly and most of them will not be done in an ideal manner. There are important things that can go wrong and unimportant things that can go wrong, and I think the translation here is unimportant.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:29
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lends authenticity Apr 29, 2016

The occasional translation error can lend authenticity to a product.

 
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