AAA Translation - We'll Take You Global

Valentine’s Day isn't just a U.S. holiday. Couples all over the world celebrate this love holiday by collectively spending millions of dollars, yen, euros and other currencies on February 14.

From Saudia Arabia (where the holiday is banned) to Japan (where only women give chocolate gifts) to the U.K. (where cards are sent anonymously), the traditions can vary significantly. Here are a few examples:

Japan
Japan’s tradition actually stems from a mistranslation in the 1950s, when chocolate companies began encouraging people to celebrate Valentine’s Day there. An incorrect translation from one company gave Japanese consumers the idea that it was customary for women to give chocolate to men on the holiday. And that has become the tradition! Now the chocolate companies in Japan sell more than half of their annual sales during the week before Valentine’s Day. Men are supposed to return gifts to women on a day called “White Day” (March 14), a Japanese creation.

Italy
In Italy, Valentine’s Day was originally celebrated as the Spring Festival, where people (usually young people) gathered outside in gardens and tree arbors to enjoy poetry readings and music before taking a stroll with their beloved. Today, Italians prefer having romantic dinners and exchanging gifts. Chocolate is a favorite gift, and the bigger the chocolate, as the belief goes, the stronger the love you will have.

Saudi Arabia
Valentine’s Day is actually BANNED in Saudi Arabia. In 2008, Saudi officials told florists and gift shops to remove all red items until after Valentine’s Day, calling the celebration a sin as it “encourages immoral relations between unmarried men and women.”

France
It’s often claimed that the first Valentine’s Day card originated in France when Charles, Duke of Orleans, sent love letters to his wife while imprisoned in the Tower of London in 1415. Today, card giving is not as popular as it used to be. Instead, the French celebrate with delicious cuisine, making restaurants popular and busy. February 14 in France is also considered the best time for a marriage proposal.

United Kingdom
In the United Kingdom, it’s tradition to send Valentine’s Days cards anonymously, a custom dating back to Victorian times. Different parts of the country have their own unique traditions as well: in Norfolk, a mysterious Jack Valentine knocks on people’s doors and vanishes, leaving sweets for children. In Wales, Valentine’s Day comes just a few weeks after St Dwynwen’s (January 25), named after the Welsh patron saint of lovers.

Estonia
Valentine’s Day celebrations in Estonia have their own twist: February 14 is called “Friend’s Day,” so single people don’t feel left out. Gifts are typically given between friends and family members. Single people also get the chance to take a ride on a special “love bus” where they can meet others looking for love. This doesn’t mean there’s no romance for couples -- shops, restaurants and even streets are decorated with hearts and other symbols of love.

China
In China, the Valentine's Day festival is quite different than elsewhere in the world. The Chinese Valentine's Day falls on the 7th day of the 7th lunar month in the Chinese Calendar, so the day is also called ‘Festival of the Double Sevens' or Qi Xi - ‘The Night of Sevens'. Other popular names are ‘Seven Sister's Festival' and ‘Daughter's Festival'. There are specific and colorful rituals for the day, in addition to the usual exchange of flowers, cards and chocolates as tokens of love between lovers. Following the tradition, lovers visit the Temple of Matchmaker on the Chinese Valentine's Day and pray for their love and happiness and their possible marriage. Singles also visit to ask for luck in love.

India
Valentine's Day is a recent custom in India but has caught on quickly. Though some see it as a western import and hesitate to celebrate, a growing number of people participate in the day. Especially to the Indian youth, February 14 signifies love - a day when people express their affection for others. Just as several other countries, people in India also celebrate the day by exchanging cards and gifts.

My daughter began college in 2002, exactly 10 years after we moved to America from Germany – when she still spoke fluent German and had a summer to learn English before school started in the fall. 10 years, apparently, is enough time to completely forget almost every bit of German she learned at such an early age. I, not realizing just how much of her native tongue she didn’t know anymore, tried to pressure her to take another language in college so that she could gain valuable knowledge of other cultures and languages. After the following events unfolded I was more than happy that she had decided to not grant my wishes, and to stick with German – the language she no longer knew best.

I believe it was her second semester of her freshman year; I get a frantic phone call… “Mom”! I need your help! My final paper is due tomorrow for German and I don’t think it’s saying what I want it to be saying. Are you really busy? Can I e-mail it to you and can you take a look?” Of course I said yes. 5 minutes later her paper was in my inbox ready to be proofread. Again, little did I realize how much she had forgotten… I called my daughter back and I asked her one simple question, “Have you forgotten everything of your German?” To which, as not only a mother - but also as the President of a translation company, I receive from my baby girl’s mouth the words I was fearing the most, “Well I used an online translator for the words I didn’t know.” I went silent – my own flesh and blood... “Mom? Are you still there?” Oh I was there. I was there trying not to scream at her about how ridiculous it was to use an online translation service to turn in a final paper that determined her final grade in the class, which could’ve caused her to fail that German class. But I digress. I got my wits about me and in my professional, calm voice explained to her why using an online translation service that has no clue about native slang, innuendo, homonyms, heteronyms, etc. is an absolutely terrible idea. After a few minutes of my speech she cut me off and simply asked me to help her.

The story of my daughter’s near misfortune with a failing paper is often times the actual story of an unfortunate company not investing the time and money into quality translators that are chosen for their native ability, educational credentials, etc. The ‘machine translator’ – as it is so dubbed in the translators’ inner circle, is just purely that: a machine. It doesn’t understand common native sayings such as, “I love this!” If that were to be translated into German the literal translation is, “I love it!” Which looks the same, yes; however, Germans don’t use the words Love and It in the same sentence, ever. The word Love in German is really only used when talking about an actual being. A native speaker would know this and would quickly be able to distinguish between the English meaning and translate it into the German version of saying that same statement. This goes a long way when trying to take your company global. Successful, globalized companies spend a lot of their time ensuring that their message is being clearly and correctly stated. Because, again, what means one thing in English doesn’t necessarily mean the same thing in Mandarin Chinese. After all, who can forget JFK’s faux pas of saying, “Ich bin ein Berliner!” Which literally means, “I’m a jelly donut!” not I’m a citizen of the city of Berlin (quotation from a June 26, 1963 speech by U.S. President John F. Kennedy in West Berlin, Germany).

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This was found on YouTube and I can't stop laughing.
This is a spoof of course, but sometimes people claim they are fluent in other languages and they are not.
This is a typical example why professional interpreters should be used for official business conferences.