In this era of social media and instant communication, translation has stepped up to meet the needs for the Facebook generation. Most people have some friends on Facebook who speaks more than one language; personally I see posts in Spanish, Italian, French, and Croatian.

Recently, I have noticed a new feature underneath these posts in languages other than English that says “See Translation.” This is a button to click that will automatically translate the above text to English, or whatever default language you may have. I tried this out with a post in Spanish and the results were subpar. Instead of translating the text as a complete sentence, this feature translated every word individually, which can change the understanding of the post.

If I knew someone was translating my Facebook posts from English into a language of their choice, I think it could be unfortunate for them to take the post out of context because of poor translation. This could cause for a strain on a relationship with someone who is a Facebook friend, but may speak a different language.

The benefits are for those trying to learn and practice their vocabulary with a new language. It can be beneficial to follow a celebrity who posts in Spanish with proper vocabulary and translate their posts into English. Another way it can be positive is that these words that were once unknown can at least be given a general idea of what the post is about. Pau Gasol is one person who writes his posts in English followed by the same post in Spanish in order to avoid confusion.

By Sam Pereira

Why do we translate Deutschland into Germany
in English?

By Emily Frye

While studying abroad in France my sister and I decided to take a trip to Munich, Germany. While crossing the border by train a policewoman asked what we were doing in Europe.  I said that we were students in France and were visiting a friend in Munich.  She replied in English, “So you are studying in Frenchland.”  Frenchland? We thought she obviously didn’t know English very well.  However, later I realized the policewoman had been quite logical.  After all, Germany in German is Deutschland, so the term Frenchland didn’t sound strange anymore.  But, it did get me thinking…

Why do we translate Deutschland into Germany in English?  A little research unveils that it’s not really a translation, but a consequence of the geopolitical history of the region.  Julius Caesar had borrowed the term “German” from the Gauls. They had used it for the tribes who tried to invade their territory from across the Rhine.  It most likely meant “neighbor” or “men of the forest.” Caesar used the term to coin “Germania,” which simply described the entire region beyond the Rhine and Danube (present day Germany).  This led me to question the origin of many other country “translations”, such as:  Hungary for Magyarország, Croatia for Hrvatska, or Finland for Suomi.

One of the most intriguing however is in the Czech language.  In Czech, Germany is Německo.  The old Slavic tribes called the groups of people that lived by the Rhine River, the Nemetes.  In old Slavic, Nemetes literally means “mute.”  For the Slavic people, the language of the Germanic tribes was incomprehensible, so they appropriately named the region after its “mute” inhabitants.

Source: Schulze, Hagen (1998). Germany: A New History. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, p. 4.