Languages

I’ve always been amazed by people who could learn other languages. I’d like to someday. In the meantime, I'll just make fun of other people that learn other languages.

Anyway, as most of you know, I really like words. Which will hopefully explain why I like the Babelfish translator site so much. My friend Shad is taking Russian, so he decided to take the normal phrases that he uses quite frequently and translate them into Russian. I thought it might be fun to then take those words and translate them BACK to English. See below for the results of this experiment.

*Disclaimer: Yes, these are phrases that Shad uses with at least moderate frequency. The last one he uses several times a day.

First I will list the original English phrase and then the same phrase translated to Russian and back.

Smell my feet.
Smell by my feet.

You really hate me.
You actually hate me.

I don’t know what to tell you.
I do not know to say you.

Are you mad at me?
You sumashedshi on me?

Then I tried it again translating to Chinese and back.

Smell my feet.
Smells my foot.

You really hate me.
You truly hate me.

I don’t know what to tell you.
I did not know any tells you.

Are you mad at me?
You live my gas?

That last one concerns me a bit...