For those who haven't learned another language, it may be surprising to learn how drastically English phrases, idioms and movie titles can be changed when translated between languages.
"The nature of language is so different between two languages that sometimes you can't have a direct translation, a one-to-one translation, if you will," said Michael Cortez, Spanish graduate student.
Some things frequently changed include song lyrics, movie titles and even entire works of literature.
Xi Qian, who once worked at Auburn as a Chinese tutor, said this happens a lot with movie titles in Chinese to make the movie more marketable and attractive to consumers.
"For movie titles, most of the occasions, they are eye catchers," Qian said. "If they are just plainly translated, it's not attractive at all, because we do not see the trailers at movie theaters. You name something mysterious so it's easier to sell."
Qian said movie titles are often drastically changed in Chinese, sometimes to reflect the overall plot of the story, sometimes to describe a main character and sometimes to make a title more relatable, especially when the title has to do with Greek or European mythology, which is not taught in China.
"On most occasions Chinese watchers see only the Chinese title from beginning, so we don't feel that strange when the translations diverge that much," Qian said.
Another reason words may be changed is because they may not make sense when translated literally or they may even translate into something offensive.
Spanish professor Lourdes Betanzos said when things are translated, however, a lot of the beauty of language is lost.
"The nuances of the metaphors or the symbolism, the color and feeling of the language is lost when it is translated from one language to another," Betanzos said.
She said this is especially true considering there are words in Spanish that don't have an English equivalent.
"One of them is a verb, madrugar," Betanzos said. "Which means to wake up at dawn. There's not one single word in English that will capture that concept."
Idioms or figures of speech often have no direct translation and may make little to no sense to someone who has not grown up to learn these expressions.
"Inevitably in languages you have those kinds of things created where you have phrases that cannot be directly translated or it makes no sense like 'kick the bucket,'" Cortez said. "What does that mean when it's directly translated? It means nothing. So you have to be careful to either convey the original core idea directly or find another idiom in that language that matches or correlates."
Betanzos said there are also little nuances in language that can catch you off guard with a meaning you didn't even know was there.
"One of the most famous companies as far as skin care, and it's actually very popular in Europe, is Nivea," Betanzos said. "If you split it up into the two syllables Ni-vea, in Spanish that means 'don't even see.' So it's little nuances like that."
Other words that may have double meanings like Nivea can make it difficult for non-native speakers.
"Sometimes the level of translation can also bother readers," Qian said. "Like someone wouldn't bother to check in dictionary that the word 'hide' can also mean the noun 'animal skin and fur.' And this can mislead for years on a weird expression."
Even if something is read in its original language, the difference between cultures still poses a challenge to the reader.
Spanish professor Ted McVay said certain words can cause different sets of images to come to mind based on a person's environment and upbringing. .
"For example if you say tree, and you're talking to someone who speaks Arabic, what kind of tree are they going to think of," McVay asked. "Immediately you think of palm trees, right? But here you might think of a pecan tree or whatever.
"All reading and all interpretation takes place in your mind and is based on your own individual experience. It's what you're projecting onto the text."
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