The Babel Message – the challenges of language intent comprehension | Intranet Focus | Intranet strategy & management
Summary
The book is the outcome of the author’s research into the way in which the warning message that accompanies purchases of Kinder Surprise Eggs is translated into 37 languages on a sheet of paper inside the box. He also uses his quest about what he refers to as the Message to reflect on the use and challenges of languages and translation in conveying the subtilties of the text. To the untrained, monolingual eye, machine translation seems like a miracle and it’s difficult to make clients understand just what could go wrong when they see what to them looks like an almost-finished product. But the machine doesn’t translate in the sense that it comprehends the input and reprocesses the text into another language with the same meaning. I am now in the process of revising and expanding the report, catalysed by an invitation to write a paper on the topic for Business Information Review later this year.