New heights of language absurdity

Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

New heights of language absurdity

Had to contact CS to authorize refund for guest cancellation (because the "authorize refund" button went away).

 

Two CS reps later I was treated to a new height of absurdity in the florid language style of current reps:

 

"I hope this message finds you in great health and spirit despite this panic-stricken season of the year."

 

Thanks... but, WTH?

41 Replies 41
Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

Years ago a Japanese client asked me to do something for them that I couldn't. She wrote back and told me to "relax my severe". This is a fraise we still use at the house when trying to convince each other to do something. 

It is now obvious that they do not even bother to hire English speakers. They hire locals who use google translate. 

I’m totally using “relax your severe” from now on @Inna22 😊

 

I was standing in front of an older Swedish couple and holding my first baby while waiting to get off a plane.  They were staring (rather severely, as it happens) at me and the baby for awhile.  Finally the man mustered his English to make a remark.  “He is very kind,” the man said.

 

It took me a minute to realize he meant my daughter was a sweet baby who had been a good traveler and hadn’t made any fuss during the flight.


I still look at her occasionally and say, “He is very kind.”

 

Inna22
Level 10
Chicago, IL

@Lisa723 @Ann72 @Jessica-and-Henry0 I just did a backwards translation to Pilipino and it comes to

I hope you find this message in healthy health and spirits despite last year’s shock

 

@Inna22 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

PS @Inna22  New heights of emoji absurdity - I used my phone’s emojis in my response, but because the site only has a man with a hand on his forehead, they translated it for me to indicate a woman is performing the action.

@Ann72 that is too funny!

Lisa723
Level 10
Quilcene, WA

@Ann72 @Robin4 @Jessica-and-Henry0 @Sarah977 @Inna22 

 

So while I understood that CS reps were often not native English speakers, it never occurred to me that help requests and responses could actually be going through machine translation. This could explain a lot about the experience in general. And it would be so very Airbnb to think that would be fine.

@Lisa723 

Since I first began training to become a professional interpreter 20 yrs ago, people I barely know would make a point of telling me that interpreters will be replaced by AI and machine translation so I should start thinking about a career change real soon 🤣 It still happens at least once a year. 🤣

 

Personally, I'm not worried at all 😁

@Jessica-and-Henry0 it will happen. But not yet.

@Jessica-and-Henry0  Yes, and back in the 50s when I was growing up, people said that in the future we'd all have robots to do all our housework. But I could swear it was me who swept up that dustpan full of dirt and dog hair today and washed the sinkful of dishes.

@Sarah977 I have two robot vaccuum cleaners and a robot mop. They work pretty well.

Nick
Former Community Manager
Former Community Manager
London, United Kingdom

I'm actually thinking of a robot mop @Lisa723, and it is encouraging that you are satisfied with it. I love the convenience of just pressing a button while I'm heading out and the robot vacuum doing its thing by the time I'm back. Then I do the mopping, but it might be time to free even more time.