Randumbness: Some Things you See are just so WEIRD they are Plain Funny!
Just a brief interlude, before I get into my day; wanted to share this because... well...
I know we have a global community here, and lots and lots of people are not native English speakers. Heck, English isn't my first language, either!
That said, sometimes I just end up shaking my head... and I can't help but laugh.
Like this comment I came across, a short while ago:
Uncomplicated article. I learned a lot of interesting and cognitive. I'm screwed up with you, I'll be glad to reciprocal subscription.
Uhmmm.... yes?
Meanwhile, here's a random bubble floating across the lawn...
Is there really translation software that is still that bad? Just wondering. Or did this start off as a terribly awkward turn of phrase in the original language, as well?
Not picking on the original commenter, here, either... except maybe a little bit, as this was a repeat copy-paste comment.
So for a few moments of levity have a "word hunt!"
How about YOU? What are some of the strangest/funniest comments or sentences you have come across on Steemit? How do you think these things happen? Bad translation? Someone trying their hand at English without a translator? Poor sentence in the original language? Leave a comment-- share your experiences-- be part of the conversation!
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When I lived in Indonesia, I was taught formal language, which included proper grammar, good sentence structure, etc.
When I spoke with people in everyday settings and communicated via text, informal language was the norm.
Imagine trying to copy a teenager's text into Google Translate. The results would not be great. It does seem that someone was picking words from a dictionary without understanding the context of how those words are properly used.
Context is key for good communication!
Good point @sumatranate; you were an ESL teacher, I presume? Or were you there for a different purpose?
When I lived in the south of Spain as a teenager and was learning the local dialect, there were definitely some regional idioms that were not part of "Castilian Spanish."
I worked with a social foundation that focused on conversational English. I studied the national language (Indonesian) formally, but in the province where I lived, there were 8-10 dialects.
Technology has advanced tremedously in regards to translations but I still recommend that if you plan on communicting in a langauge you work towards learning that language.
Learning the local language has always made sense to me. We traveled extensively when I was a kid, and my dad always made a point of making sure we had basic vocabulary... from French to Swahili...
I've had the exact same comment @denmarkguy. I particularly like:
Just such a strange turn of phrase, isn't it? And yet inadvertently appropriate... because if you're leaving that on my posts? Yeah, you are kinda screwed up with me.
Just saying...
haha howdy denmarkguy! yes I've gotten that one a few times too, I doubt if anyone has reciprocated with them though!
I've been watching this particular dude's(?) rep score slowly decline, so obviously more than a few people are flagging those comments. It won't be long before the account ends up completely grayed out... it just makes me wonder what these people actually think they are accomplishing. Many people would argue "for the curation" but since the account has close to NO SteemPower, that makes no sense.
I've had a few of them on some of my posts, One guy was hitting a lot of posts with the typically broken english "I like you post much. I upvote you, you upvote me, I follow you, you follow me, ok" I saw a couple of them before someone downvoted him to oblivion.
This is a particularly strange comment that has evidently been used across several different account... put some part of that text into a Google search and you more than one person responsible for posting them. Sometimes I wonder if it's a deliberate ruse to avoid flags, to get people to think "Oh, that person just doesn't know English" and leave it alone.
That's possible, probably like the @bible.com account that got downvoted for spamming, they probably thought no one would downvote a bible account.
Oh yeah, that one too! We've had our share of "religious sounding" accounts that spammed endlessly... and eventually got flagged to negative reps. Some spammers are smarter than others, but they pretty much all end up suffering the same fate here...
You know, I chalk it up to that big beefy number right next to your name. I don’t ever have this problem way down here in the low 50s 😂
Truthfully, this was actually on someone else's post. I get remarkably few such comments, but then I have little compunction about flagging copy-pasta (which this was) and spam. And I don't tend to engage with comments that show the person commenting obviously didn't actually read (or even scan) the post.
"Weird comments" seem to be mostly rampant on posts inflated by bidbot votes.
Ah, ok. Kind of you not to pick on your own readers 😉