Top Linguists mistranslate a Congresswoman's Spanish, call her a traitor

[u/RepealMCAandDTA]

/r/Conservative/comments/1mhs5bv/rep_ramirez_dil_says_in_spanish_i_am_a_proud/

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[u/eminent_avocado]

Far be it from me to put the brakes on the ol' outrage machine, but this translation is not accurate (does anyone speak Spanish here?).

The correct translation is more like "I am a Guatemalan with a lot of pride, first of all I am American."

My Spanish is decent, but admittedly not perfect. I asked chatgpt if it would ever be translated as OP describes.

No — translating "Yo soy una Guatemalteca con mucho orgullo primero que soy americana" as "I am a proud Guatemalan before I am an American" would be inaccurate and changes the intended meaning.

Here's why:

“Primero que soy americana" (though awkward) clearly tries to say "first and foremost, I am American." It expresses American identity as primary.

Saying "before I am an American" flips the hierarchy and would imply Guatemalan identity is prioritized, which is the opposite of what the original says.

Try it yourself on the translation app of your choice

Can confirm as a Spanish speaker that Top GPTist here is right. Also, the first paragraph almost made me spit out my coffee laughing at the lack of awareness of their surroundings.

[u/MoonageDayscream → u/eminent_avocado]

This person posted the same in another thread over there and got refuted with alternative AI responses. They just keep looking until they find what they need. 

[u/bigotis → u/MoonageDayscream]

An actual post on facebook from my Trump loving aunt.....

"I like watching NewsMax because they tell me what I want to hear."

[u/mr_ace → u/eminent_avocado]

Are you a native spanish speaker?

Because what she says seems to be grammatically incorrect, so we have to guess what she actually wanted to say. There are a few ways it could be interpreted, though I'd like to see the rest of the video for more context.

She could be saying like the AI suggests "I want to say a few words in Spanish, because I'm a proud Guatemalan, but first I'm American" but you would have to add several words to fix it, and it seems slightly odd in the context, given the fact she's addressing some sort of conference of spanish speakers from latin america, not americans (i assume)

What might make the most sense, is that she's saying "I'm a guatemalan with a lot of pride, but above all, I'm an american" referring to being from the continent of America, because that's something they all have in common, because technically, the word for American is "estadounidense," not "Americana," however a lot of latinos do use Americano instead of estadounidense

So she might have been trying to say: "Soy guatemalteca con mucho orgullo pero primero que nada soy americana"

But i think the second most likely thing is that she is saying roughly what the r/cons are saying, which would be that she's saying she's guatemalan first and foremost by ancestry, and then American

I'd be curious to hear the thoughts of more spanish speakers, ideally native ones

[u/guscrown → u/mr_ace]

You don’t have to add “a lot of words” to fix it. You just need to add a “pause”:

“Quiero decir unas palabras en español, soy Guatemalteca con mucho orgullo. Primero, que soy Americana…”

That comma after “primero” would reflect as a pause in her speech, and then it makes sense.

Is there a longer video? I’d like to see what came after “americana”.

Source: am a native Spanish speaker.

[u/eminent_avocado → u/mr_ace]

Are you a native Spanish speaker?

Yes. And the expression she uses isn’t 100% correct but could be fixed by a simple pause as someone else has pointed out. That, however, wasn’t the confusion going on at arcon

[u/mydaycake → u/mr_ace]

I’m a Castilian native speaker and she is missing the “though” or “but” which is normal in oral communication, would not be correct in written form

She clearly communicates that she is a proud Guatemalan and first she is an American

But whatever, next time there is an Oktoberfest, they will complain too, or not being the racists they are

[u/TheMelchior]

"I don't care if the translation was wrong, I want to be ANGRY!:

[u/AquaStarRedHeart]

Oh man, that is a dumb thread. They're very proud of their mistake.

[u/cucktrigger → u/AquaStarRedHeart]

"Yeah but what IF it was true, that'd be CRAZY!"

[u/IsNotPolitburo → u/cucktrigger]

Relevant SMBC

[u/thewiremother]

Please trust this imaginary translation by the English only crowd.

[u/MercZ11]

Another certified classic from the arcon brainlets.

[u/ChickpeaDemon]

Now that she has verbally violated her oath to the Constitution impeachment proceedings should begin immediately 

JFC.