Lost in Translation

Dear Mom,

The translation software is always improving, and that's a good thing, too, because it still has had a long way to go!  We've seen some *pretty* funny translation attempts as Facebook tries to automatically translate for us our friends' "check in" posts, which are often written in slang kidspeak to begin with.  At the moment I don't have any examples of the funny translations, and who am I to complain, anyhow?

Google Translate is a lifesaver, for sure.  

And sometimes you can use the camera feature of Google Translate to good effect:

becomes

But there are nuances to how I use technology to help with understanding.  Sometimes I could generate a translation, but it's actually a picture that I want.  An example of this would be when I want popcorn kernels--a very unusual request and only sold in certain shops catering to a tiny sliver of the population.  If I type in "popcorn kernel" into Google Translate, it will probably generate a correct word, but that word may not even make sense to most shopkeepers.  And then I wouldn't know, when I show them my phone and they shake their head, whether my inquiry actually made sense and they don't have the item, or if the question was itself a dud.

So in that case I'd use my phone as a communication aid in a different way.  A Google search generates not only a photo of the item I am searching for, but also the Vietnamese words that are effective to communicate about it.

Recently I was at the tomb of the first emperor of the most modern Vietnamese royal dynasty.  That's in Huế, two hours north, where the kingdom capital was located.  The tour guide said that people would stand outside the gate of the tomb to "worship" the dead emperor, and it struck me that I really don't know all the finesse of that word as it's used and translated.  
So in the cases of real complexity, like this one, I'll ask one of my synthetic friends.  The first three paragraphs are my query, and below that is the first paragraph of several pages' worth of answer.

I don't know how long this link will be valid, but here's the rest of that conversation if you're interested:

https://chatgpt.com/share/69afe210-cf40-800b-b9d1-79f9bd77b7a8

If I'm using my phone for translation, I try to use the very simplest English phrases to eliminate accidents.  Pronouns and time-phrases are two areas where you need to keep it as simple as possible, and of course keep away from idioms.  

Ironically, sometimes the best way to simplify your language for translation is to use a more sophisticated word.  In the last paragraph I said "keep away from idioms" which sounds to us like a simpler way of saying the two words "avoid idioms."  But actually in this case your translation app will thank you for using the specific word that has only one meaning.  There are so many examples of this, where we usually use language that's a little slippery and friendly, and instead it's helpful for the translation software if we can use crisp, precise language.

Phrasal verbs such as “figure out”  “work out”  “pick up”  “get over”  “take off” look simple but are ambiguous for translation software.

Example:  “I’ll pick it up later.”  ----  could mean:  collect something, learn something quickly, improve (skills), lift something

Words like:  “retrieve,” “collect,” or “acquire” are easier to translate because they're more precise.

Yep.  This stuff is interesting to me, but I can see that it might not seem like there's much of a point.  I guess it's just what I've been thinking about in regards to using my phone more effectively as a translation tool.  Much love!

~Tim/Janet

PS. 

A group of friends from Bend is here, and it's delightful for us to show them our city.  Tonight we're taking some of them to vegetarian dinner before Vision English Club.  Tomorrow we're planning to rent a motorbike so we can all be on two wheels (when the occasions arise for us to safely convoy like that).

Staying in my Shadow

Dear Mom,

These days we are looking forward to (and planning ahead for) a visit from the States.  This one is a group of 6, coming from Bend, and they'll be here for two weeks at the end of March.    

We're looking forward to hosting them!  We're planning to introduce them to our local friends, eat local food together, and show them a glimpse of what Life-in-Vietnam looks like.  It's going to be fabulous!  I'm sure we'll be blogging about it.

(Other Moms:  Want to come?  You're out of time to plan a visiting-the-Chases trip this time, because two months from today we'll be home and attending our boys' graduation from George Fox University.  However, we hope this isn't our last time in Vietnam, and we'd love to arrange a visit from YOU.  Let's plan together!)

Today we're meeting a friend from the old days.  She is nervous about having her first baby, later this month, and Aunt Janet is full of helpful advice, website links, and books.  This is a country where no books like What to Expect When You're Expecting have been circulating, and it's kinda crazy how much Janet says about being a Mom is coming as news to her.  Also we're fingers-crossed for her inner peace and health.  And their marriage is a topic of our finger-crossing, too.  Lots of good things are possible!

As we were driving to meet her, I realized something about traffic flow.  The guests who are coming this month will probably want to rent a motorbike, so I'm thinking about that.  I passed a small bus on its right as we drove through through a chaotic intersection, and though I was entirely safe and at-ease, I realized it would feel like a terribly risky thing to a motorbike newbie.  At least it would feel risky to a Vietnam-motorbiking newbie!

The safest place for you, when we're crossing an intersection together, is immediately beside me and slightly back.  Your front wheel is right next to my rear wheel (if we're flying in Top Gun, you're flying in Wingman position).  You may expect me to slow down or even stop as we approach the intersection, but instead we're moving forward because we have the flow and rhythm and it's the right moment.  So stay in my "Traffic Shadow" and keep your tire adjacent to mine.  By "traffic shadow" I mean that if the traffic is coming from our left, I hope you're on my right, in wingman, and down-stream from me with my motorbike blocking anything coming your way.  

When I think of the traffic shadow, and how my bike is casting a shadow of safety for your adjacent bike, I often think of references in the Good Book where the Lord is described as casting a shadow of safety.  Here's one:  https://www.biblehub.com/psalms/36-7.htm

I'm grateful.  I'm grateful to be in His shadow.  I'm grateful to live in this place.  I'm grateful to be able to host the group that's coming.  I'm grateful to be coming home to Bend.  I'm grateful to be forming plans to return here to live again, in a rhythm.  I'm grateful for the many relationships we have formed in Vietnam and in the USA.  I'm grateful for the increasing sense of connections that are forming between these two countries we love.

What are you grateful for?  What are you looking forward to?  Each time we exchange an email or chat in Signal/WhatsApp, those count as valuable threads linking your house and mine.

Love,

Tim/Janet

PS. 

Cooking and Eating together is a favorite pastime for us here.  

Learning some basic Vietnamese home-cooking with Thủy: 

And making pizza (first time --so exciting-- for all the local friends) with Vision English Club.

May God-our-Father release blessing for you in this new year-of-the-horse. May he go before you and watch behind you, bringing you close to his heart. May your eyes be brightened and enlightened, that you can appreciate Joy like never before, even in places you didn't expect to find it.

Chúc mừng năm mới! We love you!

~Tim and Janet

Today is the day after Tet Holiday, or the second day of Tết. (By the way, I’ve begun to learn to type with Vietnamese diacritical markers, so if I toggle to my Vietnamese keyboard—Win+Spacebar—I can type “T e t e s” and it puts the hat on the e and adds an upward stroke. And I feel very cool about it.)

In this email I just want to unpack the screenshot above a bit.

This is a message sent to the woman who worked for the professional service they hired to clean the house we’re living in prior to our move-in. She’s named Nhung, and she agreed to come once or twice a month to help the house get a periodic deep clean—we’re so grateful!

The message is sent in an app called Zalo. It’s created by the Vietnamese government, for the use of the Vietnamese people, and if you’re a privacy advocate you can read into that statement anything you want to. It’s an easy guess that if the “winds” ever shift here, like they have in China, all the other messaging platforms could lose access and the people would need to use Zalo to communicate. In China the 微信 app is also the one they use for banking and paying each other, so it makes for lots of … transparency. We enjoy using Zalo with local friends and consider all of our comms, regardless of encryption, fully transparent.

I sent the blessing message to her on the evening of the first day of the Lunar New Year. February 17 is the basically the latest date for Tet that we’ll ever see.

Next 9 Years (2026–2035)

• 2026: February 17 — Year of the Horse (Ngọ)

• 2027: February 6 — Year of the Goat (Mùi)

• 2028: January 26 — Year of the Monkey (Thân)

• 2029: February 13 — Year of the Rooster (Dậu)

• 2030: February 3 — Year of the Dog (Tuất)

• 2031: January 23 — Year of the Pig (Hợi)

• 2032: February 11 — Year of the Rat (Tý)

• 2033: January 31 — Year of the Buffalo (Sửu)

• 2034: February 19 — Year of the Tiger (Dần)

Nhung gave a heart to my message and replied with a blessing of her own. She’s home with teenage sons and extended family this week, and we’ll see her again next week.

When we saw her for the last time before Tết holiday, we handed her an envelope with “lucky money” inside. I have more to learn about lucky money, but what I know so far is that any time someone enters my home for the next two days, I should have a red envelope with clean/crisp money inside. The luck that I’m extending isn’t based on the amount of value, and the luck is luck for them as well as for me. But if you’re a kid in 2026 you definitely track which of your uncles gives a better payout when your family visits their house.

I have a friend here in Đà Nẵng, an American war vet, who gives out Lucky Money envelopes all year long. I try to get coffee with him (and/or a bowl of phở) every week, so I see him giving red envelopes A LOT. Someone selling hair bands or cigarette lighters or lotto tickets will walk through the cafe we’re in, and he gestures them over and hands them an envelope with cash inside, and wishes them a simple blessing from God. He gets his red envelopes printed with a tièng Việt Bible verse on them, and he buys them 5000 at a time. It could be wrong, and I know about lots of the inherent dangers of coupling spiritual things with financial charity, but I’ve been with this guy enough and seen the interactions enough to validate that what he’s doing is deeply right on so many levels.