Former QA from Germany here - some international companies supposedly develop their UI in German first because after that most other translations will fit ;)
Though, that doesn't help with bad translations. I often had a hard time explaining to my American business colleagues that just because I'm a native German speaker doesn't mean I will be good at translate their strings at 5pm so they could get out their launch... +1 for a professional translations!
As a German, I can tell you the problem is that none of these translations are common here, as the whole concept of a speed bump is something entirely ungerman. In fact the first time I've ever seen them was in Mexico, and we were joking that there isn't even a word for it in Germany.
Sure, you could translate it as Bremsschwelle, but I bet your metaphor would confuse most people.
I am originally from north western Germany and they were everywhere, especially in 30km/h zones and play streets. We just called them Huckel and I never thought about an official term. I can not remember seeing any of them in Berlin though. Here they make you break by going left and right instead of up and down.
Interesting, I don't think I have seen them in Bavaria more then in exceptional cases. And even then it's just not something that is present in my head. In other countries though, like Mexico or Thailand, when I think of the roads there, speed bumps are something that I immediately think of.
It might be because they are used differently there. Like they are literally everywhere on each kind of road, so steep that you destroy your car if you ignore them. In a play zone you already have to drive very slow, so they don't bother you, but there you have to actively look for them and slow down. IMO this is because instead of having many bureaucratic traffic rules there, the bumps serve as physical traffic rules. This use case seems to be what OP is referring to in his metaphor.
When was the last time you were talking about speed bumps in Germany?
that's a common issue. I worked on a Japanese product where most of the words were 2 characters and they had made horizontal menus that fit 5 buttons across (mobile). You can imagine that didn't work with anything other than Chinese. Yea, they had to redsign.
As a native German speaker I don’t think I’ve ever heard any of the listed words except Bremsschwelle. Most of them are weird regional slang terms that won’t mean anything to most people, no need to overthink it that much.
Yeah most of the other regional terms I've never heard.
Around here we just call them Bodenwelle or Verkehrshürde but I haven't ever heard Bremsschwelle to be honest. The word sounds very strange to me and more like a bureaucratic term rather than a word people regularly use.
Speaking of which, I checked dejure for a Rechtssprechung. It seems that Fahrbahnschwelle is the official term. [1]
(OP here) I'm thinking of either using "speed bump" in English, or adding the typical European sign for speedbumps for clarity. For now, I'm using Wikipedia's word in the end...
And that kids is why we translator is a profession (and not an algorithm). AI is attempting itself on it, but is at least three steps away from it (finding a really suitable word, rewriting the whole paragraph to fit this word contextually, considering the whole article to make sense).
Sure, but mostly everyone in English understands speed bump. There's a standard word that's understood by most. In German, you can even see in this post how many people have heard only very different words (they don't even know the rest).
The problem with LLMs is that they do what you tell them to do.
If you ask the LLM to translate something without context, it will translate without context, and the result will quite likely be incorrect. If you provide some context, the result will likely be better. And if you tell the LLM what you are actually trying to say, the result will often be even better.
In this case, the issue was that "speed bump" did not actually mean a speed bump. It was used in a figurative sense, as a cultural idiom. If you tell that to the LLM, it should be able to suggest better ways to express the same idea in other languages.
The German language demands a more precise and sober style, whereas English tolerates more sloppy expressions. One common technique to work around that is to just use English terms when there is no catchy German one. In German marketing, this is done all the time. So in your case, you are fine sticking to speed bump.
Btw: my favorite word for speed bump is the Dutch "drempel". It is quite onomatopoetic. My favorite term for speed bumps in German comes from Comedian Helge Schneider. He calls them "Teerwülste" (tar bulges). I don't think you find it being used, but it fits the German style very well as it is precise and sober.
It is the bane of my existence that in German you cannot just put things in places. The word you would use for "put" depends on the physical relation of the objects involved.
Is it lying down ultimately? Hanging on? Standing upright?
And things don't sit on other things unless they literally have a chair.
Maybe it's not my children but the constant dealing with the German language that perpetually makes me feel exhausted.
Readit News
Though, that doesn't help with bad translations. I often had a hard time explaining to my American business colleagues that just because I'm a native German speaker doesn't mean I will be good at translate their strings at 5pm so they could get out their launch... +1 for a professional translations!
Sure, you could translate it as Bremsschwelle, but I bet your metaphor would confuse most people.
It might be because they are used differently there. Like they are literally everywhere on each kind of road, so steep that you destroy your car if you ignore them. In a play zone you already have to drive very slow, so they don't bother you, but there you have to actively look for them and slow down. IMO this is because instead of having many bureaucratic traffic rules there, the bumps serve as physical traffic rules. This use case seems to be what OP is referring to in his metaphor.
When was the last time you were talking about speed bumps in Germany?
Start|Save|Settings|Info|Exit
At a minimum but given the style, both that and yours would be super cramped given the font size they wanted.
Further, the post is about German
Start|Speichern|Einstellungen|Info|Beenden
(no idea if those are correct)
Also, those buttons I made up. I what I remember something like 通信 being one button.
Around here we just call them Bodenwelle or Verkehrshürde but I haven't ever heard Bremsschwelle to be honest. The word sounds very strange to me and more like a bureaucratic term rather than a word people regularly use.
Speaking of which, I checked dejure for a Rechtssprechung. It seems that Fahrbahnschwelle is the official term. [1]
[1] https://dejure.org/dienste/vernetzung/rechtsprechung?Gericht...
[0]https://www.dwds.de/wb/Hubbel
Same as with code right now.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_bump
If you ask the LLM to translate something without context, it will translate without context, and the result will quite likely be incorrect. If you provide some context, the result will likely be better. And if you tell the LLM what you are actually trying to say, the result will often be even better.
In this case, the issue was that "speed bump" did not actually mean a speed bump. It was used in a figurative sense, as a cultural idiom. If you tell that to the LLM, it should be able to suggest better ways to express the same idea in other languages.
Btw: my favorite word for speed bump is the Dutch "drempel". It is quite onomatopoetic. My favorite term for speed bumps in German comes from Comedian Helge Schneider. He calls them "Teerwülste" (tar bulges). I don't think you find it being used, but it fits the German style very well as it is precise and sober.
Is it lying down ultimately? Hanging on? Standing upright?
And things don't sit on other things unless they literally have a chair.
Maybe it's not my children but the constant dealing with the German language that perpetually makes me feel exhausted.