On the phone to my mum in Finland a while back I somehow found myself having to use the word "organic". I think the conversation went something like this (roughly translated as I speak a very peculiar Swedish dialect with my parents):
Mum: We harvested the potatoes today. We should have enough for the whole winter.
Me: How wonderful to grow your own potatoes. Real, organic potatoes!
Having not lived in Finland for over a decade, finding the right words can prove difficult sometimes when I speak to my parents, and they have to deal with my "Swinglish" from time to time. Therefore, I actually used the English word "organic" ("organisk" in Swedish) when describing the potatoes grown on my parents’ farm.
My mum paused and sounded genuinely confused when she finally replied:
What do you mean, "organic"? All potatoes are organic aren't they?
And indeed they are. So why is the English language using the word "organic" when describing ecologically grown produce? The online dictionary describes "organic" as "of, relating to, or derived from living organisms".
I could understand my mum's confusion as I referred to her potatoes as "living potatoes". Swedish and Finnish, and all the other languages I know, expect English, use "ecologically grown" or "ecological" when describing products that have been grown to a particular standard. It really gives a whole new meaning to "lost in translation"...
A translation company is looking to recruit Glaswegian interpreters to help business clients who are baffled by the local dialect.
Today Translations placed an advert in The Herald newspaper on Tuesday seeking speakers of "Glaswegian English".
Successful candidates, who could earn up to £140 a day, must understand "vocabulary, accent and nuances".
The firm said, so far, 30 people had applied for the positions - some of them in Glaswegian.
Today Translations spokesman, Mick Thorburn said: "Over the last few months we've had clients asking us for Glaswegian translators.
"After some consideration we've decided this is a service we would like to offer.
'Local dialect'
"Usually, the role would involve translating documents but in this case its more likely to be assisting foreign visitors to the city whose 'business English' is not good enough to understand the local dialect."
Mr Thorburn said successful candidates may have to sit in on business meetings.
He added: "We're not necessarily looking for people who are particularly skilled in linguistics, just candidates who can help out clients who may struggle with native Glaswegian."
Today Translations said that depending on the volume of applications, it expected to contact the successful clients in the next few weeks.
I recently travelled to Finland, the country where I grew up, on family matters and while I was there I stayed in touch with the outside world (literally, my parents live in a remote village) with the help of a well-known social networking site.
A while back I saw that the site in question, i.e. Facebook, was advertising that they needed users to help translate their site into other languages. This is apparently called crowd-sourcing, which means Facebook would use volunteers from the internet public to translate their website into all the languages of the world – sans monnaie.
What I hadn’t anticipated was that as soon as I logged on to Facebook abroad my page would automatically load in a foreign language. However, it slightly surprised me that my Facebook page automatically loaded in Finnish. Although from Finland, my first language is not Finnish and for anyone out there wondering: Finland has two official languages, Finnish and Swedish, neither bearing any similarities to each other whatsoever.
If you haven’t come across the odd but wonderful language that is Finnish, the following might explain why I felt disorientated at first. The longest acceptable Finnish word is apparently: Lentokonesuihkuturbiinimoottoriapumekaanikkoaliupseerioppilas.
According to the Finnish edition of the Guinness Book of Records, it translates approximately to: Technical Warrant Officer Trainee specialized in Aircraft Jet Engines. Hmmm... And it’s not the only example. What do you think of this:
Epäjärjestelmällistyttämättömyydelläänsäkäänköhänkin?
I had to look this one up and some sources say it means something like “not even when taking into account his/her/its way/ability/tendency of not disorganizing” but people seem to disagree on the exact meaning for some reason. Not your daily sort of words but they show you the nature of the Finnish language, nonetheless.
But my main concern was that if I had to navigate Facebook in another language while abroad, why was I not offered the opportunity to use Facebook in Swedish? Has Finland’s bilingualism been overlooked by Facebook? Has this happened in other bilingual/multilingual countries? Comments, please.
