Oddtail @oddtail@meow.social

So, hey, I'm a translator. And I'm pretty much *always* looking for more work.

I translate to and from Polish.

Not the most in-demand language in the English-speaking world, but if you need a translation done or know someone who does, hit me up.

I'm good at what I do, I have low rates, and I can work pretty damn fast if that's what you need.

I am also pretty versatile, I've translated everything from literature to marketing to technical stuff.

#introductions

Might as well do this.

Hi! I'm a leftist, furry nerd from Poland, 32 y.o.

I'm shy/socially inept, but always vaguely hope to talk/befriend new people, esp. online (so talk to me about whatever). Both online and IRL, I default to treating everyone as a friend unless given a reason not to.

I'm a cis guy (pronouns he/him), but if you're a furry - I'm vastly more comfortable and less prone to anxiety if you assume I'm a woman (she/her) and if we interact as such online.

(9/9)

Stop projecting. It's not the rest of the world's fault that most of y'all don't bother to learn a foreign language and think that's the norm for anyone you might interact with.

And in case Russians actually do occasionally make the "w/v" mistake (which I'm still pretty sure they would NOT in the word "vodka". ffs), it's still a lazy trope.

(8/?)

How would a character mispronounce a word from THEIR OWN LANGUAGE in such a way?

I'm tired of English-language media (usually American, but this is a regrettable British example) assuming that just because a lot of English-speaking people are inept with languages, a foreign character (and the character in "Skins" is a translator, so fuck you on that front, too) would be as well.

(7/?)

I'm sure parts of the country look like that, but probably not a part a school trip from England'd visit. Jesus Christ, Eastern countries are poor, but this episode looks like a fucking cartoon).

But, I digress again. A character in the show, clearly a native speaker of Russian, pronounces "vodka" with a "w".

What the fuck was the writer smoking? This is a Russian word. It's spelt with "v" in English to mimick RU pronunciation.

(6/?)

But this is such a persistent trope that I've just watched an episode of the (British) "Skins" (the one set in Russia. BTW: I've never been to Russia so I can't tell for sure, but the potrayal, in a show set in early 21st century, shows Russia as a poor, shitty backwater that'd charitably be realistic in a portrayal of Russia from 1970s.

(5/?)

And I'll give you that this is a convenient shortcut for "character doesn't speak English very well". It's LAZY and I don't know how often that specific mistake would happen, but whatever.

(4/?)

Best I can tell, it's the American (because it's mostly American) writers noticing that some Slavic languages that use the Latin alphabet (and pointedly Russian is NOT one of them) use the "w" letter" for the "v" sound. But here's the thing. The writers (again, from what I can tell) are projecting their own confusion on Russian characters.

(3/?)

Point is, the Russian language, from what I can tell, doesn't even *have* the "w" sound. While that might be superficially a good case for a character to confuse the two, the sounds are nothing alike, and Russian *does* have the "v" sound. Why would a character struggle to pronounce a sound they are familiar with IN THEIR OWN NATIVE LANGUAGE?

(2/?)

Y'all do realise it's like naming a random American character "Washington Roosevelt", right? Unless it's comedic on purpose, naming the foreign character in such an on-the-nose way (especially taking a famous last name) sounds silly.

But I digress.

(1/?)

It annoys me to all fuck that Western (mostly American) media portrays Slavic people speaking English (usually it's Russians, mostly because writers probably only ever HEARD of Russians) as confusing "v" and "w" sounds.

The most famous example is Chekov looking for "nuclear wessels" in Star Trek. Incidentally, naming of characters in ST: TOS is ridiculous. The Russian's named Chekov, the last name of the Scottish guy is "Scott"...

Plus, I'm quietly hoping for Scotland to break off its connection to the UK, ESPECIALLY since one of the major arguments of the "Better Together" campaign was "if you vote for independence, you'll have to leave the EU, and that'd be bad!".

Which, given what happened so short thereafter with Brexit, is just, fuck. Y'know? Kinda disgusting. And Scotland, obviously, voted overwhelmingly against Brexit.

And a bad Brexit will certainly give Scotland a big push to want independence.

This is an ugly sentiment, and I'm not proud of it, but I want Brexit to go very badly for the UK and to shake things up in a bad way.

I don't want ppl to get hurt, especially the people who voted against it.

But I also want the damage to UK economy to be evident, especially given UK essentially tried to blackmail the European Union by leaving. Which would set a bad precedent if UK somehow managed to limp onwards.

I don't know how to reconcile that with wanting ppl to be OK long-term =/

No joke, I'll never understand how "colon" and "colonel" can be pronounced significantly differently. English language is not just weird, it's like someone deliberately *designed* it to make no sense.

Listen, the fact that "colonel" is somehow pronounced "kernel" is damning evidence by itself.

(how does that even happen?!)

The English language needs to be burnt to the ground and built again from scratch.

This, by the way, has nothing to do whatsoever with the previous Toot. I have no idea why I phrased it like it's a segue from the previous one.

Point is, I've heard Americans say they "don't have an accent" (curiously it's always Americans, never Canadians or Britons or whatever), and it's both annoying and dumb every single time.

On a more serious note, based on a conversation on an Internet forum (and addressed mostly at people from the USA):

Most of y'all are probably aware of that, but there's no such thing as speaking "without an accent". If you're not broadcasting words directly into someone's brain via telepathy, you have an accent.

It matters because it's not just incorrect, it's also an example of centering one type of language (yours) as invisible and therefore default.

*Everyone* has an accent.

I didn't know until today that Roland Emmerich is openly gay.

I think that it's inspirational and helps combat stereotypes about LGBT+ folks.

For example, you can be gay and still be able to make joyless, boring, uninspired movies.

Seriously, he makes the straightest movies ever, and I mean it in the bad way.

I feel like crap, have a headache that painkillers don't seem to do anything against (a rare occurrence for me), and generally am unwell.

Hope it's a general mild sickness and not something serious starting up.

I mean, contrast bots in the previous election, or Trump supporters on Birdside in general. It's usually combative, and angry, and full of conspiracy nonsense, so it works to rile people up, to muddle the waters, all the usual stuff.

This, at best, amuses liberals and makes them write something to the effect of "don't let the door hit you on your way out" if they don't realise it's a bot.

It's either some 5D Chess type of stuff, or completely pointless.

There's a shitload of comments by obvious bots in any Birdsite threads related (or by) the President-Elect, in anything related to the election etc., to the effect of "I'm moving to Mexico, election was rigged".

I'm trying to figure out the purpose behind the bots. It's not (really) furthering the idea of a conspiracy, it's not divisive, it's not upsetting to Biden supporters.

It's not doing any thing that an obvious bot commenting about politics does. What's the rationale?

It was adorable. We did stop after a while, because the doggo really had no idea how to handle that new situation, so it'd've been a bit mean to continue for too long.