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Friday, September 16, 2022

How Much Do You Trust CNN's Translations?

I am watching a CNN report about a Ukrainian hotline where Russians can call to see if their loved ones had been captured or identified as dead.  I will not claim that my Russian is terribly useful anymore but listening to the Russian wives and mothers while reading the translated subtitles it was nice to be able to recognize particular words and phrases.  "Ya nye znaiyoo": I do not know.

Why does this matters one?  Some years ago, a friend was studying Arabic while the 2nd Gulf War was under way.  CNN translated an Arab's remarks as indicating the country was hopelessly messed up.  But what my friend could hear him say was, "the whole Muslim world."

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