On the topic of language barriers

[Crius 0]

I suppose this qualifies as taking care of my spamming needs, so; I think I had one of the strangest social interactions of my life the other night.

 

It was rather late and I was just about to close the game that had been open with an unattended personal shop when I got a PM in Portugese from some random person. I said that I only speak English and figured that "English" would be a key word and the person would either go away or switch language. Oh how wrong was I. He kept sending messages, in which I tried to make it clear that I didn't understand him, as if it wasn't already clear when I replied to him in a different language. Eventually I just made random comments about the weather a couple of times and was about to give up, before I got a message with something I vaguely recognized as him being on his way to me.

Anyway, he came along and wanted to trade, at which point he threw up a MS Gaia armor, a magma rock and some money and continued speaking as if should make any sense to me. I tried some basic things with Google translate like "I don't speak Portugese" until, with some strategic questions, I finally realized that it was actually Spanish (I find they are very similar, especially in IM-speak where most of the subtle differences seem to be left out). Not that this was any immediate help since apart from some random phrases like "donde estas mis pantalones", I don't speak Spanish either (not to say that particular phrase is not very useful in some scenarios, but it does limit the possible topics of conversations somewhat). But hey, at least I could use Google translate with the correct language. Great plan, until you realize that the language people use in-game, whether Spanish or English, is completely butchered by abbreviations and game terms. In short, what I got out of the translation was somewhat similar to a crossword puzzle. I'm sure that phrases like "t q no" makes perfect sense if you speak Spanish, but apparently not so much if you don't or if you're an online translator.

Not that this was any concern of his, as he continued yapping away until I finally entered "you're annoying and I'm going to bed. Good night" into the translator and relayed that to him. At this point, he got even more chatty until I finally got a message that ended with "prisss" or something similar and finally managed to get that he was interested in a PrS dark iria robe I had in the shop earlier. You'll have to forgive my confusion prior to that since, as far as I know, he used neither the words "buy" nor "dark iria robe" at any point. I wasn't particularly interested in his offer (I had the shop up to get rid of stuff I didn't need, not to exchange it for more stuff I didn't need), but he carried on anyway until I finally just told him to get a translator before trying this again and logged off. Bit rude maybe, but I wasn't feeling particularly generous considering he had made zero effort to help me understand anything of what he said.

 

Moral of the story; if you don't speak the language of someone you're trying to talk to, use Google translate and you'll usually get something that's at least legible. If you can't be bothered to show that much courtesy, at least your language correctly so that others can use Google translate on it. If even that's too much to ask for too, try to be clear with your intentions, like, I dunno, using some combination of the words "buy" and the name of the item. Contrary to popular belief, it's not possible to make someone understand a language they don't speak by talking slowly and loudly (and in this case, he didn't even try that).

[tommylizard 1]

tl;dr

[Rkokie 6]

HOLY SHIT I AIN'T READING THAT!

[Crius 0]

I clearly forgot to put in the ADD disclaimer.

[Edgardo 0]

lol.

 

portuguese, spanish, all the same.

 

 

Indeed Google translator is useful, but actually it translates better from other language to english (not all languages), rather then from english to other language.

 

 

I'm not sure, but i think the spanish word for trade is "cambiar", in case you find it usesul.

[Guest TFSE]

that's expecting way too much fromwtcommunity

[Crius 0]

Actually, I can usually see the difference between Spanish and Portugese if there is enough text. For example, Portugese tends to use special characters more, like ~, but like I said, most of that (and proper grammar) is lost when people want to write quickly. Anyway, with Google translate, you may not get a perfect translation, but you'll generally get something that you can understand. At least when it comes to the major European languages (English/German/French/Spanish etc.). If I can decipher a machine-translated Korean MP3 player manual, there's a good chance I can understand a phrase from Google translate.

 

that's expecting way too much fromwtcommunity

 

As opposed to expecting me to be able to learn Spanish in 20 minutes through osmosis from someone who doesn't even use proper Spanish? I mean, if he just gave up I'd get it, but that he continued for that long without even thinking that maybe he should try something else boggles the mind.

[Guest TFSE]

and hence why it's expecting way too much...

[Edgardo 0]

Lol it reminds me the bad time i had trying to speak with a spanish-talking guy, just yesterday.

 

I'm lucky bacause i had some espanish classes at high school and could put the right words in google translator. And because i talk portuguese, which close to spanish.

 

few ppl make effort to understand others, they want to be understood, even though it's not the "official" language.

 

If the person doesn't show sympathy, i usually don't bother translating. But in that case the guy asked for help, so as i had passed thru t5 i helped 'em. It happens.

[Crius 0]

Well of course, but you must at some point realize that what you're trying to say is not getting through, and it's time to either give up or try something else. I mean, I spent probably 5 minutes trying to tell him in Portugese and Spanish that I spoke neither and trying to ask him what language he was speaking just to be sure, and got absolutely no reaction. At one point later he said "tell me in Spanish" (thank you Google translate), as if the problem wasn't that I couldn't speak Spanish, but that I hadn't realized that I should use it. Not everyone speaks English, I get that, but if they desperately want to talk to me anyway they could at least try to meet me half-way.

[Mercury 0]

Been there. You write well

[TripleR 0]

Ayer yo estaba tratando de comprar esta armadura de una persona. Le dije que sólo hablan español, pero no me hizo caso. Siguió hablando Inglés, como si yo lo entendería. Qué grosero!

[Crius 0]

Har har har, 3R (pun intended). Ironically, I can actually get the important bits out of that message without resorting to automatic translation. I get "buy", "a person", "only speak Spanish" and "speak English", or at least something very similar to it. The rest I can sort of piece together from the context. Say the same thing but abbreviate it into oblivion though, and I don't stand a chance. And for the record, I actually did try Spanish (and Portugese until I found out it was the wrong language), even if it was a translation. But since I couldn't translate more than about 10% of what he said in return, the conversation was somewhat one-sided. For quite a while, I thought the guy was just yanking my chain. I'm still not sure he wasn't.

[TripleR 0]

Hah.

 

Typicalwtcommunity.

[Crius 0]

Yeah, make fun of the English-speakers. It's not even my native language. Great fun to be had by all. Excuse me while I get the needle and thread, for I fear my sides are splitting.

[vodkawolf 0]

English or gtfo. nuff said.

[SkyX 0]

English or gtfo. nuff said.

lo que quiere decir perro?

[vodkawolf 0]

*sigh* 

[SkyX 0]

español es bueno

umad?

 

http://translate.google.com/?hl=en&tab=wT#

[vodkawolf 0]

Not mad, just /facepalm

[Gogg 3]

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