LJ Idol 9.24: The Cupertino effect...

[alexpgp]

To err is human; to really screw up requires a computer.
(with apologies to Alexander Pope)

Some years ago, I had to write a letter to a potential client explaining how I would go about making sure that interpreters assigned to work at a high-level bilateral technical meeting would "provide error-free services."

This was a real head-scratcher of a challenge, because interpreters, whose job consists of orally translating what people say to each other, back and forth, in the course of a discussion, create no tangible "thing" that can be checked before it's "used." Once an interpreter utters something, the cat—so to speak—is out of the bag. By comparison, translators create a written text, the quality of which can be verified before delivery by having an expert compare the translation to the original and make any necessary corrections.

In the interpretation industry, the standard response to a requirement to "provide error-free services" is to swear up and down that you use only qualified people with extensive experience and impeccable track records to do the work. And there, with the word "people," lies the rub.

People have an annoying tendency to make mistakes.

Sometimes, a mistake is made by those screening the qualifications of the people who will be doing the work, and you end up with the situation similar to the one President Carter found himself in during a trip to Poland in late December 1977, when his State Department interpreter turned Carter's "when I left the United States" into "when I abandoned the United States," and went on to say something about "your lusts for the future" when the President spoke of the desires of the Polish people.

Sometimes, a mistake is the result of stress or surprise, as was the case during the famous "kitchen debate" between Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev at the American National Exhibition held in 1959 in Moscow. There, during a discussion of the merits of the capitalist and communist systems, an emotional Khrushchev finally burst out with the statement that the Soviet Union would "catch up with and surpass" the United States, and then uttered an obscure idiomatic expression that basically means "We'll show you!" (with overtones of "We'll teach you a lesson you won't forget!" and the merest hint of "Your punishment will be severe!"). The situation was so stressful and the phrase so unexpected that the interpreter momentarily found himself at a loss, and he interpreted Khrushchev's phrase literally, as "We will show you Kuzma's mother!"

And in the end, sometimes—let's face it—you don't have to do anything or be anyone special to misunderstand what someone else has said. (How many times have you had a conversation that, roughly, follows the template "I said this—no, you said that"?) This stuff happens to interpreters, too, from time to time.

I finally decided that the best way to ensure high-quality interpretation was to assign two interpreters for any particular assignment. It's an expensive solution, but if "provide error-free services" is the overarching criteria, having people back each other up the only reasonable solution, the idea being that if the "working" interpreter makes a mistake, the "listening" interpreter can jump in quickly and fix things.

So, using my word processor, I wrote a very persuasive letter to the client, read it over, and then spell-checked it. I then fired up a newly installed faxing application and copied the text of the letter into it. After making sure the recipient's company name and fax number were correct, I positioned my mouse cursor over the "Send" button on the screen, and pressed the mouse button.

And just as I did so, my eye was drawn to the recipient's last name in the salutation. As my mouse button made a soft "click," I was horrified to see that Bloomstein had somehow turned into Bloodstain.

Keeping the button depressed, I felt much like the unfortunate infantry soldier who has just stepped on one of those land mines that arms itself when stepped on, and then waits for something else to happen before blowing up. I considered my options. I thought about disconnecting the computer's power cord or the modem cable, but both were connected to the back of my computer, which was under my desk. I was stuck.

Just as I was about to pick up the phone and call for someone to come unplug my computer, I realized that the faxing application would not actually send the fax until I released the mouse button while the cursor was over the "Send" button on the screen. So I carefully moved the cursor away from the button on the screen and released the death grip I had maintained on my mouse. Nothing happened. The fax remained unsent. Embarrassment—or worse—had been averted.

However, a new problem arose. When I changed the name back to "Bloomstein," it doggedly reverted to "Bloodstain." What was going on?

After digging around in the program's settings, I discovered the faxing application was configured to "autocorrect" text entered into the message field, and apparently, "Bloomstein" was not a word recognized by the program, so it was replaced by something that was in the program's dictionary. After making the appropriate changes to the configuration, I changed the name back one more time and, after making sure it remained unchanged, sent the fax.

As it turned out, my letter swayed the client and my proposed solution was adopted, but the sweetness of that victory will always be marred by the knowledge of just how closely I had come to alienating the client by having a computer program "help" me make what would surely have been a hugely embarrassing error.

Comments

[adoptedwriter.livejournal.com]

Yep! I understand this s a Spanish translator. Be careful to whom you say, "I need to catch the bus"! LOL

AW

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

As a fledgling student of Spanish, all I can recall about catching buses is that "catch a bus" is said differently, depending on geographic location ("tomar un autobús" in Latin America, "??? un autobús" in Spain?).

Cheers...

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Ohhh, computers. But what a good solution!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Yes. Computers! Can't live with 'em, too expensive to regularly take a hammer to.

Cheers...

[jem0000000.livejournal.com]

Exactly!

[meridian_rose]

A great entry - what a lucky save! With e-mail, it's usually gone the second you hit send :)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

That's usually the case because folks release the mouse button :^).

Thanks for the kind words.

Cheers...

[roina-arwen.livejournal.com]

That was creative thinking to what could have been a very off putting error! Phew!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Dunno about "creative." "Panicked" thinking? Yes, sir!

:^)

Cheers...

[beeker121.livejournal.com]

Auto-correct of names is the worst, they always end up as something horrifying. Luckily you hadn't let go of that mouse!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I hear you, and agree.

Cheers...

[jexia]

Yes - I once texted hubby (while I was away at a music school) that "Gustav snores". Only it came out as "Hydra snores".

Thanks for this piece, alexpgp.

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

Oh, boy. The description of a soldier just having stepped on a landmine was a good analogy. You're trapped and yet safe so long as you just don't move.

I've backed the mouse away from something imminently awful too, and was always relieved that releasing the button on some OTHER icon/space did not trigger the disaster that was in danger of happening.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the compliment.

I've since used the maneuver several times, BTW. It's a useful tool to have in one's bag of tricks!

Cheers...

[halfshellvenus.livejournal.com]

My son told me one I'd never learned before: Ctrl-z to undo whatever you just did-- inside an email or a comment box, for instance, where there is no "undo" choice.

That has saved me some grief!

[crisp-sobriety.livejournal.com]

Oh man, I could feel the tension of that moment. The landmine analogy was so great. Like some of the others here, I too have experienced that moment when the mouse needs to be gently and carefully pulled away from disaster...

This was also an interesting read for me, because I've just recently started translation as a hobby.

Great work!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

What language(s) do you work in?

Cheers...

[crisp-sobriety.livejournal.com]

I have what I'd call tourist-level proficiency in a few languages (mostly as a by-product of where I live), but I could never be called truly bilingual. I want to improve, and I happened to have a french novel laying around, so I'm starting with that.

[mamas-minion.livejournal.com]

I love how auto correct is Designed to not take Names into account at all. I think if you capitalize a word you should have option to override the auto correct. It would save a lot of people time and embarrassment.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

That it would, but it would also rob us of a number of exciting "oh, no!" tales, no? :^)

Cheers...

[rayaso.livejournal.com]

Autocorrect can be a real disaster, especially if it doesn't recognize a word and tries to "correct" it into something else. I've used the mouse trick to avoid disasters as well, usually of the "delete" kind. Very nice entry!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the compliment!

Cheers...

[eternal-ot.livejournal.com]

Ah! great use of the prompt...and like minds use the same proverb albeit differently..I used it too in my entry..:D..you sure made the tension palpable and that's a feat. Good job!

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the compliments. I'm glad you liked the piece.

It occurred to me that poor interpreters have been creating the Cupertino effect for as long as interpreters have been around, which led naturally to my use of the updated line from Pope.

Cheers...

[shimmerdream.livejournal.com]

Ooh, lucky save. I enjoyed reading this.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you liked it!

Cheers...

[dmousey.livejournal.com]

Ooo boy... crisis averted! Thanks for sharing. :)

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for stopping by!

Cheers...

[waltzmatildah.livejournal.com]

People have an annoying tendency to make mistakes. They so do, don't they??! This was a great entry. Nice work.

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the kind words!

Cheers...

[karmasoup.livejournal.com]

Don't you just love how computers make our lives so much easier? !

[alexpgp.livejournal.com]

LOL!

Well, the truth is... sometimes they do, and sometimes they don't, wouldn't you agree?

Cheers...

[muchtooarrogant.livejournal.com]

Well played! *grin* I'm pretty sure I would've panicked, and just powered off the computer.

Dan

[talon.livejournal.com]

I have to say, your life experience lends itself to the most interesting nonfiction entries :D

[hosticle-fifer.livejournal.com]

Hehe, nice.

I once trolled my sisters, back in the dusty days when we all lived together in my parents' house, by temporarily customizing MS Word's autocorrect settings to swap "or", "and", and "but" in a circle. Subtle and infuriating, the perfect sibling prank.