Sunday, June 12, 2011

School emails according to Google Translate

Korean and English are very, very different. And they're not only different in the obvious ways - writing system, vocabulary, basic sounds. They also have nearly opposite sentence structure and entirely distinct approaches to verb conjugation, the use of articles, and even which words need to be included in a sentence at all. This is on top of the divergent cultural approaches to linguistic expression. In short, Korean and English are, appropriately, about as different as East and West.

And that is why, despite its valiant efforts to accurately translate from Korean to English, Google Translate often spits out some of the most nonsensical and hilarious sentences I have ever seen. That said, it is still the easiest and most reliable method that I have for translating inter-office school emails, so I continue to use it. My daily Google translations have become more of an entertaining pastime than an actual information-gathering activity these days, so I thought I'd share with you some of the better snippets I've collected. Google translations are in italics; my thoughts/interpretations are added in plain text.

If you're a 10,005-year-old children, school staff refer to official documents, please contact your office

We don't take kindly to mummy-students in the classroom. They require more paperwork than normal students.

Concerts ever since the resurrection of the teachers.

Zombie musician teachers!!!!

I think that our school will make shine gloriously.

This sounds more like it should have been written in North Korea.

Check the status of clean and ask the map to go to class.
Uneducated maps will lead our students astray.

Student Ministry ovule is zero.
Um.......

To establish availability and expertise of our colleagues held hostage every time the kidney will be OK.
If you have healthy kidneys, your most expert and available colleagues will be abducted by terrorists.

Lee, Jin Sam's moans, the office ...
The reason
So do not you come in each subject's test range .....
Please help the tears to cease .....

Seriously, guys, get within those subjects' test ranges or this woman is never going to stop moaning.

Two won by modifying the objective Taxonomy send back riohni
Because subjective taxonomy is just unscientific.

For information contact, our Chairman of the teacher to contact you when the Nordic Council session to say how you want to rust.
I would like to rust slowly into a nice burnt-orange color that brings out my eye color.

Hard to do two days rest to start a new Monday ildeulgo many hair pushed hard for everyone is not working well right? There are no see pony up more jobs.
The hair pushing isn't keeping everyone busy enough. Better find more jobs to give them.

Clean the area around the ruins remain drawn out sludge schools are a lot of things to do.
Sludge schools are commonly found in sewers and at the bottoms of ponds.

Teachers need to please take advantage of you.
It might be wise for me to quit soon if this email has been translated correctly.



7 comments:

  1. Hilarious, love the one about hair pushing!!! I am not the only one. ;)

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  2. Too bad everyone in the Student Ministry is infertile. :-(

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  3. Wow! I just found and read this blog after searching for information on where to find cheese in Korea and whether I would be able to get 5 pounds of a hard durable cheese through customs. (Still unknown)
    I really found it amazing because I am about to go to Korea, I *love* cheese and other dairy, I applied through a Canadian recruiting agency, I'm going to be part of the EPIK program, AND I live in DC! It was like reading the blog I will be writing in the future!

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  4. Ha! Thanks for the comment, Jeff :-) Any idea yet where you'll be going? It's much easier to get decent cheese (though it'll cost you an arm and a leg) in cities, especially Seoul. Let me know if I can help you out with anything - questions about Korea, cheese obtainment, how to deal with missing DC, etc. ;-) Be in touch, and good luck with the application process!

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  5. I'll be going to Incheon with my girlfriend. I would love a bit of advice. Are there some top tips on teaching or living in Korea that you wish you had known before going? When you were visiting Malaysia, were there complicated re-entry permit-esque things to deal with?

    P.S. I just found out today that the DC vegan bakery Sticky Fingers has a second (and maybe third?) store in Seoul. No other cities, just Seoul and DC.

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  6. No problem! Shoot me an email at cejacobs@gmail.com and I'll get back to you :-)

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  7. Haha some of those are hilarious!

    I'm a little bit concerned about you after reading the last one though. But hey, at least they said please!

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