Cookie Boy's story - lost in translation

Cookie Boy wears a "lost" look.

I was googling Teecup Limited last night when I came across a weird link that said Google could translate my latest blog entry on Cookie Boy from English to Filipino.

The original story was about the cat discovering the corpse of a bat this week. I wasn't really expecting much from Google's English to Filipino translation.

Still, curiosity got the best of me. Here is an excerpt of the translation:

Isang unidentified bat na nagkaroon wandered sa Teecup Limited headquarters natutugunan ng isang wala sa oras pagkamatay na ito linggo.

Walang mantsa ng dugo, kagat marks at iba pang mga pisikal na katibayan upang magmungkahi na ang isang away ay ensued, sinabi ng cat sa bantay.

"Ang mga bagay lamang froze sa kamatayan," isiwalat Cookie Boy.

Ang tanging lalaki na miyembro ng's pack teecup ng mga di-tala ng mga ninuno cats ay sa patrol kapag siya natuklasan ang katawan.

Siya tinanggihan paglusob ang kabag at sinabi na siya natagpuan ang bangkay matapos habol sa roaches.

"Tulad ng marami bilang Gusto kong kumuha ng credit para sa mga pumatay, hindi ako isang bat nakamatay," cat ang sinabi.

I had the pleasure of a good laugh from the giant G's paragraph-by-paragraph rewording. Google's English to Filipino translation is SO much funnier than Nagmalitong Yawa (a character in Filipino literature). Don't you agree?

On a serious note, if you want your English blog site translated to Filipino, take my advice: Get a human  to do the job. Here's why:

• No matter how advanced technology may be, absolutely nothing can substitute the real human being in terms of language usage.
  
  
• Translation isn't a matter of expressing individual words from one tongue to another. Rather, translation takes into account the dynamic expression of thought within a given context.

There's no way I'm leaving Teecup Limited to the hands of a machine. The story on Cookie Boy's encounter with the bat deserves an international audience.