Thursday, December 17, 2009

Rinse the language of cold water first.

Google has a feature, Google Alerts, that lets you set up persistent searches for words or phrases. When a news story or blog includes that word or phrase, Google sends you an email.
So, quite a while, I set up an alert for Hakkarainen. Most of the people with that name live in Finland and, as a result, most of the stories are in Finnish. Google Translate can help by providing a usable translation of the story (more on that in a moment).
Yesterday, this story shows up - 'Tis the Season for Ethical Treatment of Pigs. It turns out that there's been a quite a bit of trouble since a video showed the deplorable conditions on some Finnish pig farms. Google sent me the story because the reporter interviewed the manager at a Helsinki meat retailer, E. Hakkarainen. The butcher shop has been in business for nearly 100 years (history, in Finnish).
True to the nature of the web, a simple story about pigs who are treated badly before we eat them leads to following:
Merry Christmas to all and ham! ("Hyvää Joulua ja kinkkua kaikille !")

1 comment:

Linda said...

I love translation stories like that. Here's one of my favorites: In the early 1900's the US was exporting cars to Russia. In the "Care of your Model T Ford" booklet, it was recommended you wash your vehicle with Ivory soap. The translation: Elephant Tusk soap.

Happy Holidays!

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