Telephone Game

New York Times Headline:
Libyan Rebels Flee Strategic Town Under Heavy Attack

Arabic
المتمردون الليبية اهربوا بلدة استراتيجية لهجوم عنيف
Arabic to Slovak
Rebeli Utečte líbyjské mesto stratégie pre násilný útok
Slovak to Italian
Ribelli Fuggi strategia città libica per aggressione
Italian to Macedonian
Бунтовниците Бегај стратегија либискиот град за напад
Macedonian to English
Rebels Flee strategy to attack Libyan city

There seems to be some difficulty translating the word "Strategic".

AND Direct to Slovak and back to English
Líbyjská Rebeli Utečte strategické mesto pod ťažkou Attack
Liberian Rebels Flee strategic city under heavy attack
Turns the Libyan rebels into Liberian Rebels which I am 1) sure is new to Liberia and 2) completely the way Americans would understand the situation.

"All them countries over there are the same"

Joe(Quoted from a High School TEACHER in Texas circa 1969 )Nation

The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts.
FRENCH
Tout le problème avec le monde, c'est que les fous et les fanatiques
sont toujours si certains d'eux-mêmes, mais des gens plus sage si
plein de doutes.
GERMAN
Das Problem mit der Welt, ist, dass die Crazy und Fanatiker immer
bestimmte selbst, sondern weisere Menschen wenn voller Zweifel.
NORWEGIAN
Problemet med verden, er at gal og fanatikere er alltid sikkert, men
klokere folk hvis den er full av tvil.
ITALIAN
Il problema con il mondo, è che noci e fanatici sono sempre persone di
sicuro, ma più saggio se è pieno di dubbi.
ENGLISH
The problem with the world, is that nuts and fanatics are always
people for sure, but wiser if it is full of doubts.

I studied italian intensely for about three years - intensely re grammar and composition, but I never did learn to converse well, though last time I was there, 1999, I could carry on some interesting halting conversations with various italians I met. They're usually quite forgiving and the conversations ranged in subject matter. (Tennis, for example, with the hotel clerk.. as we both watched a tv match in italian) The studying was back around 1990 and I've forgotten most of it, though I think it would pop back if I immersed myself in it again. My point, re your first examples, is that italian grammar considers those sentences to be different, the difference having to do with time, and it therefore provides different tenses for correct usage. This is hard for some of us to imbed in our brains.. but it was fun for the year or two I caught on.


Mam in Welsh, that's nice. (Hey, I'm 1/16th Welsh, so now I know a word)


Hmmm, I was doing what JoeN did in the first post, translate from language to language, thus having lots of room for miscues. Interesting to try it from english to the different languages separately. (How would that differ? I'd do mine again but I'm bored with it..)

But wait, maybe they are the mercenaries..