thinking about translators
Jan. 3rd, 2011 05:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
loloteheLaying in bed this morning, listening to the radio, I was half-thinking about a scene I had in my book where a translator is having trouble with some dialog. I had written it with the device stuttering.
Now, as creepy as that would be, and as cool as it might sound, it's not what would happen. The device would either find the closest approximate word or it would ignore the dialog as noise and do nothing. The only reason a translation device would stutter is if there was something wrong with the device itself, not what was being said to it.
So, now I have to re-write that scene. It's not a huge deal, but I'm glad I caught it instead of someone else. I just get to mash up some word salad with the vocabulary the device would use the most often.
This actually helps me, because I then get to show how the translators are usually used, as opposed to the extraordinary circumstances presented in that one scene.
Now, as creepy as that would be, and as cool as it might sound, it's not what would happen. The device would either find the closest approximate word or it would ignore the dialog as noise and do nothing. The only reason a translation device would stutter is if there was something wrong with the device itself, not what was being said to it.
So, now I have to re-write that scene. It's not a huge deal, but I'm glad I caught it instead of someone else. I just get to mash up some word salad with the vocabulary the device would use the most often.
This actually helps me, because I then get to show how the translators are usually used, as opposed to the extraordinary circumstances presented in that one scene.
