We are living in the Information Age, where any data can be obtained within seconds via Internet, so for many people translation from one…
We are living in the Information Age, where any data can be obtained within seconds via Internet, so for many people translation from one language into another does not seem to be a big deal.
However, any translator is familiar with the feeling when, although you understand a phrase very well, you just cannot find the proper words to translate it into the target language.
When we speak about translation we should consider that the difficulty of a language always depends on the language we translate into, in other words, one and the same language may appear to be easier translated into some languages than into others.
We have found out what languages are the most difficult to be translated into English.
Number 10. Russian
Most Slavic languages have no fixed word order in sentences. That is why sometimes a simple change of intonation, word stress or a misused comma can upset even an experienced translator.
A popular Russian phrase that astonishes any foreigner is “Yes no maybe” meaning, “you know, I don’t think so”. Also, the verb tenses system is not very strict, so the phrase “Yesterday I went shopping” can have at least three different Russian translations with no particular difference in meaning.
Number 9. Hungarian
This language has thirty-five noun cases (while English has only three!). Also, Hungarian has lots of suffixes, and the pronunciation is very complex due to lots of vowels and guttural consonants.
Number 8. Tuyuca language
Tuyuca is spoken by small groups of people in some areas of Colombia and Brazil. This language has a very simple phonetic system, but the grammar is incredible – the nouns are divided into more than hundred classes and the verbs have unique endings explaining why the speaker knows this or that fact (e.g. if the fact is evident, apparent, told by someone or assumed).
Thus, if you want to say “a woman is washing clothes” in Tuyuca, you are obliged to add something like “I know it because I’ve seen it”.
Number 7. Kazakh
Kazakh belongs to the Turkic family, and spoken Kazakh is very different from the bookish language, which has a complicated system of endings and suffixes. To change the form of a word, you need to use several suffixes, as a result, the word becomes longer and more difficult to pronounce.
One of the most difficult things to translate from or into Kazakh are family words – if a person represents someone as his “brother” it does not necessarily mean that they are siblings, as in Kazakh culture blood relatives are only the ones from the father’s side, so a “brother” or a “sister” can be a cousin, a half-cousin or any other paternal relative approximately of the speaker’s age.
Also, there are separate words for maternal relatives, younger and older brothers and sisters. Another curious fact about this language is that, despite Kazakh has a word for “green”, the grass is always “blue”. Green leaves, green cucumbers, blue grass – just deal with it.
Number 6. Yakut language
Another Turkic language spoken in Sakha (Yakutia) Republic in Russia. This language has several dialects, some of them are so different from each other that they may be considered independent languages.
Yakut language has a vast range of sounds that seem to be impossible to pronounce if this language is not your mother tongue. There are eight Past tenses in Yakut, so you have verb forms to say “I have worked recently”, “I worked a long time ago”, “and it turned out that I have worked ”,“ I worked once ”,“ I once worked for a very long time ”,“ I had worked ”and“ it happened once, I was working at that time”.
Total number of verb forms counts up to twenty. Yakut language has nine words for a deer, five words for snow, five for wind and six for cold!
Number 5. Japanese
The most difficult of this language is that spoken form is totally different from the written one, and it is virtually impossible to learn to speak it by just understanding a written text.
Japanese has three different writing systems, one using Chinese hieroglyphs. In order to read and write in Japanese, you will have to memorize thousands of hieroglyphs! Another problem is, of course, some specific aspects of the language.
For example, Japanese has two words denoting cold, samui (寒い) and tsumetai (冷たい). But samui describes only something that cannot be touched, like air or weather, while tsumetai is used for something we can touch, like drinks.
Number 4. Finnish
Finnish grammar has no division into masculine and feminine, so, you do not know whether you are speaking about a man or a woman before their name is mentioned in the text. Moreover, this language does not have a Future tense, so sometimes it is hard to say if the text is about the future or the present.
But what you would really love about Finnish is that it is possible to join up to ten simple words into one big and complex word, like “metalliteollisuus” – heavy industry and machine building. Also, Finnish has dozens of words that just cannot be translated, only explained, for example, “sininen hetki” – a minute of inner peace and distracted thoughts that a city dweller can afford among the big city dynamics.
Number 3. Korean
Korean can be difficult to understand even for the Koreans due to the fact that there are two state dialects – Seoulite and Pyohgyangian, and eight regional dialects.
The Koreans adore using proverbs, sayings and aphorisms in their speech, so sometimes it’s difficult to understand the meaning of a phrase, let alone to translate it. Do you know when your arms become your legs? When you’re really asking for something.
You should always remember that politeness and respect are the basis of Korean culture, so, for example, 아줌마 (adiuma) – means a married woman from the lower society. Basically, you can call so every elderly woman and it will be acceptable – but don’t use this word to address to your boss’s wife! For her, use samonnim, please.
Finally, there are several words for “you” in Korean with different degrees of respect. In order to address to each other in a proper manner, the Koreans exchange business cards meeting for the first time.
Number 2. Arabic
First of all, some letters in Arabic have four variants of writing depending on their position inside the word. Besides, this language does not have capital letters, so, if a name is borrowed from another language or misspelled, it can take pretty much time for a translator just to understand that it is a name and there is no need to translate it.
Moreover, Arabic has no vowel letters, so every written word can be read in several ways. To make it worse, Arabic has two types – the “high”, or literary language and the “low” or colloquial language. The type you chose depends on the specifics of communication and the subject being discussed.
Number 1. Chinese
If you think that the hieroglyphs are the greatest problem of Chinese, you very wrong. First of all, Chinese has its own word order that sometimes may seem completely illogical for an English speaker. Sometimes, some words can be omitted in a Chinese sentence, so you have to add them to the English variant yourself.
Also, intonation can change the meaning of a word, so a translator has to have a very well-trained ear to distinguish between the four tones. Even the Chinese music videos are always subtitled – otherwise no one would be able to understand the lyrics.
As in every language pair, there are concepts which just cannot be translated from Chinese into English, like 舞龙灯 (wu long-deng, dancing with a dragon lantern), 太极 (tai-ji, the Great Ultimate).
And you’ll never find a Chinese equivalent for a mascot or even salad. And finally, there is such thing as connotation that can complicate the process of translation.
Thus, phrases like “love me, love my dog” or “every dog has its day” cannot be literally translated into Chinese, as the word 狗 (gou, dog) is always associated with something disgusting or unpleasant.