unseriously serious
Translation Isn’t Just About Words
I think a lot about the limitations of language in communication. Recent advancements in AI, specifically its ability to generate near-instant translations, have made these limitations even more apparent. The public’s excitement about tools like ElevenLabs has brought these concerns even more front of mind.
Growing up in a home where multiple languages were spoken, I noticed that much of the work of a translator wasn’t so much about simply converting words, but rather, translating meaning. A lot of the time when people got offended, it was due to a misunderstanding: they really didn’t mean it like that.
This extends beyond language and can appear when translating between social contexts or even in one-to-one communication with a close peer. Most people emphasise their own clarity and precision in their communication styles, believing that their objective comprehension of their output is sufficient to communicate a message. But they fail to consider the context from which their interlocutor is arriving at the conversation.
One way I recently experienced this was when Iran elected a new president; a reformist-leaning one, at that. I was shocked. From the little I knew about Iran, I knew it was unlikely for such a result to occur. When I looked further into the matter, I realised that Iran had a Supreme Leader who supersedes the president in say and sway and has ultimate decision-making power. When I read “president,” my view of this role was very narrow-minded and closely resembled the role established in the United States. These articles suddenly felt misleading, and I questioned the media’s ability to accurately convey meaning, especially due to the sheer number of nuances that I soon uncovered as I began to investigate the matter further.
Not only do presidents across countries play vastly different roles, but so do common political terms, like “right wing” and “left wing.” These terms don’t always translate well across contexts. For example, in India, the political spectrum functions very differently, and using a simple left-right scale fails entirely to capture the underlying dynamics.
I’m not sure how to fix these issues (let me know if you have any ideas!), but I played around with an idea for a “Political Context Translator”, a tool that allows you to select your most familiar political context and translate terms in articles so that you may better understand the meaning behind events.
While there’s no existing solution to this problem, it’s worth being aware of the content/context paradox across all communication. By better understanding where others are coming from, you’ll be able to adjust your communication to be both better understood and to better understand.
What first appears to be a strange or controversial take is more likely a significant misunderstanding. When this isn’t clear, it’s best to just be straightforward and ask for clarification. You might come to find that you disagree with someone’s opinion, but leaning in with curiosity, rather than approaching from a place of judgement, will result in a far more interesting and accurate exchange.