Messages : 10
Langue: English
Alkanadi (Voir le profil) 1 mars 2015 16:08:31
"Servas" is an Esperanto word that means something like "open doors." It's the best translation we have.Are they serious. They couldn't just Google it. Doesn't the word sound kinda like the English word serve... Hint hint. Why would they say that it is the best translation that they have. Do they mean that they hired a translator?
Anyway, I have made stupider mistakes in my life.
It is good that Esperanto is getting some free publicity.
Here is the article
vikungen (Voir le profil) 1 mars 2015 16:43:59
vikungen (Voir le profil) 1 mars 2015 16:44:06
Tempodivalse (Voir le profil) 1 mars 2015 17:00:45
Christa627 (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 00:50:42
Alkanadi:This is really funny. There is a new couch surfing website or something like that called Servas. This is a quote from the article by the Huffington Post:And according to the website of Movado, a maker of fine Swiss watches, "movado" is Esperanto for "always in motion"; which I guess is more accurate than the above..."Servas" is an Esperanto word that means something like "open doors." It's the best translation we have.Are they serious. They couldn't just Google it. Doesn't the word sound kinda like the English word serve... Hint hint. Why would they say that it is the best translation that they have. Do they mean that they hired a translator?
RiotNrrd (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 01:55:05
Christa627:And according to the website of Movado, a maker of fine Swiss watches, "movado" is Esperanto for "always in motion"; which I guess is more accurate than the above...That Swiss watchmakers would value accuracy isn't terribly surprising.
RiotNrrd (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 02:06:08
Which is, I'm sure, a perfectly truthful statement. They just left out the part about "...because we didn't expend any effort whatsoever to find out what it actually means".
Alkanadi (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 13:57:08
RiotNrrd:It's the best translation we have.Exactly. I think they left that part out.
Which is, I'm sure, a perfectly truthful statement. They just left out the part about "...because we didn't expend any effort whatsoever to find out what it actually means".
Or maybe, they hired a team of translators who were all scratching their heads in confusion because they don't know how to translate this word. Each translator gave an educated guess about the meaning and then the Huffington Post had to choose the best one. Some of the translators suggested that the word could mean "apple pie" while others suggested that it could also mean "elephant". Luckily someone figured out that it has something to do with the noun "door" and also the verb "open". Alas, they cracked the code: it means "open doors". I think this is really what happened.
They make it seem like Esperanto is so deep, esoteric and ambiguous that it can't be translated to English.
lagtendisto (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 19:57:50
Alkanadi:This is really funny. There is a new couch surfing website or something like that called Servas.New? Servas was founded in 1949.
kaŝperanto (Voir le profil) 3 mars 2015 22:52:29
vikungen:It even says on "Servas'" page what it means.. vespiras..That would have required that they leave the home page - way too much effort
