Wondering why it took me so long to write a post? I was too busy learning FINNISH!

Don’t believe me? Well, check out the impeccable translations I have just completed in English AND Portuguese, of an article by Teija Potenze in the Journal of the Finnish Translators’ Association (voted one of the most prestigious T&I journals in Europe). Teija, who was herself a high-level diplomatic interpreter for the Finnish cabinet (we actually met in Brasilia, on occasion of the official visit of the Finnish president), was kind enough to feature a review of my book, along with an article of mine in English, in the December 2010 edition of the aforementioned publication.

I was flattered, for I assumed Teija had said good things about the book. But how could I tell? Her text was all in Finnish, which to a non-Finnish speaker is often just a long string of repeat letters, almost as if the typist spilled coffee on his keyboard. Unless you are born in Finland, trying to make out the meaning of a text in this complex language equals attempting to solve Fermat’s last theorem with a broken abacus.

But that didn’t stop me! Determined to decipher Teija’s message, I patiently entered the original Finnish text into Google Translate (yes, I cheated, I know!) — sticky keys and all — and had it pre-translated into Portuguese then English. I later polished up the texts using the contextual information I had (it’s my book, after all) and made some minor adjustments here and there. Although I know my rendering doesn’t come close to Teija’s beautiful prose in her own beautiful language, I was nevertheless agape that I could make any sense of a text in a language which was and still is a complete mystery to me.

The result is definitely telling.  Well, I will let the Finnish readers of my blog (anybody there?) be the judge of that. The original article can be found here. And my impeccable translations (blush, blush) can be praised beyond measure here.

I don’t know about you, but if I were a Finnish translator (which I now am, by the way!), I’d be really scared at what technology can do.

All joking aside (I hope my Finnish friends won’t take offense), I should like to thank Teija Potenze for her gracious offer to review Sua Majestade, o Interprete and feature one of my articles in the Journal of her reputable Association.

Much appreciated, Teija. Thank you.

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Do you speak Finnish?

Have you ever tried machine translation?

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