Failures of translation
Aug. 23rd, 2007 10:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bktheirregularOne thing I'd been meaning to do is swap out light bulbs in my apartment for the compact fluorescent variety wherever I can. (After all, I'm paying the electrical bill; why not put in more efficient lights?) The trouble came when I went to swap out bulbs in my kitchen and my bathroom.
Those two bulb fixtures, it turned out, didn't have the standard screw fittings; instead, they had bayonet fittings (two protruding pins on the side of the bulb base, corresponding to two grooves in the fixture). Okay, I told myself. I've got to get a couple of CFL tubes for bayonet fixtures.
Tried that yesterday, after arming myself with translations. Went into an electrical shop off of Syntagma, and asked:
<< Έχετε έναν φθορισμού βολβό με σύνδεση ξιφολογχών; >> (translated: do you have a fluorescent bulb with a bayonet connection? (Interesting note: in Greek, you indicate a question by using what in English would be a semicolon.))
The guy at the counter looked puzzled, until I demonstrated what I meant with my hands.
Ahh, he said. << Θέλεις βολβό γιά bayonet. >> He used the English word.
As a rule, I make an effort not to use an English word when I'm speaking in Greek; it feels wrong, plus it jams up my mental translation circuit, like sticking a rebar into clockwork. This even carries over to instances where the Greeks themselves use a word that I identify as English; for example, the oldest of the metro rail lines, running from Piraeus to Kifissia, is referred to not as the Metro (a word I have no problem with, by the way), but as the τραινο - the train - and I can't refer to it that way. Even though everyone else does.
(Epilogue: it didn't matter what word I used; the electrician didn't have any bayonet-socket fluorescent bulbs anyway.)
Those two bulb fixtures, it turned out, didn't have the standard screw fittings; instead, they had bayonet fittings (two protruding pins on the side of the bulb base, corresponding to two grooves in the fixture). Okay, I told myself. I've got to get a couple of CFL tubes for bayonet fixtures.
Tried that yesterday, after arming myself with translations. Went into an electrical shop off of Syntagma, and asked:
<< Έχετε έναν φθορισμού βολβό με σύνδεση ξιφολογχών; >> (translated: do you have a fluorescent bulb with a bayonet connection? (Interesting note: in Greek, you indicate a question by using what in English would be a semicolon.))
The guy at the counter looked puzzled, until I demonstrated what I meant with my hands.
Ahh, he said. << Θέλεις βολβό γιά bayonet. >> He used the English word.
As a rule, I make an effort not to use an English word when I'm speaking in Greek; it feels wrong, plus it jams up my mental translation circuit, like sticking a rebar into clockwork. This even carries over to instances where the Greeks themselves use a word that I identify as English; for example, the oldest of the metro rail lines, running from Piraeus to Kifissia, is referred to not as the Metro (a word I have no problem with, by the way), but as the τραινο - the train - and I can't refer to it that way. Even though everyone else does.
(Epilogue: it didn't matter what word I used; the electrician didn't have any bayonet-socket fluorescent bulbs anyway.)