Untranslatable: The First Multilingual Dictionary

UNTRANSLATABLE:

words and design by: SOFIA BRIZIO

An interview with the creator of the first ever multilingual dictionary

If you’re fluent in one or more foreign languages, you’ll know the familiar feeling of a word in your target language being ‘untranslatable’ in your native language and vice versa. For example, my first language is Italian, and one of my favourite words is ‘abbiocco’, which indicates the feeling of drowsiness you get after a big meal. I am yet to find a word in English that conveys this feeling as effectively, and I’m not the only one who feels this way.

Amarens Elise is a 24-year-old Linguistics graduate with a passion for languages; she is fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese. She is the founder of The Foreign Language Collective, a website sharing tips to improve your skills in a foreign language. Much like me, Amarens felt that the difficulty of managing different languages is trying to convey the meaning of words which are culturally unique to a particular language. To offer a solution, she created Untranslatable, the first ever urban dictionary where people can share and browse local idioms, slangs and expressions in any language, providing detailed information around the context and nature of their usage. A Kickstarter campaign to fund this project was launched on November 26th, and I interviewed Amarens three days later to learn more about Untranslatable.

I think creative projects always stem from a need for something that is lacking or doesn’t exist yet, and I imagine this was the case with Untranslatable. Where did the idea come from?

Untranslatable was definitely created out of the need for something. As a language learner, I often discover new words and, whenever I do, I always try to find out more information. Sometimes you’ll see a word for the first time, and realise it means something simple like “beautiful” or “nice”, and I always wondered “Okay, but if the meaning is that simple, why haven’t I heard it before? And when do I use this? Could I use this, or would that be weird?”

Those are the kind of questions I’d like to answer with Untranslatable, by not just telling people what something means, but also who uses it, how frequently, and where. That kind of information is often very clear to native speakers, but for an outsider it can be a complete mystery.

I think I shared the idea for the first time on my Instagram page. I had created an example, and people loved it, but they also came with suggestions, so I started thinking about how things could be better. At the time I was still a student and I didn’t have the time to give the project the attention and resources it deserved, but having recently graduated, I couldn’t get the idea out of my head, so I thought “it’s now or never”. What makes Untranslatable unique to other apps for language learning such as HiNative?

First of all, it’s not going to be an app at first. The idea is to build a website where people can add things, and language learners can browse it, but especially in the beginning it will be just that - a dictionary. A website is an incredible tool for data collection. Data that can later be used in many different ways, including language learning. I guess you could compare it to Urban Dictionary, but what makes it different is that it is multilingual, and even allows (and encourages) submissions in lesser-known languages and dialects. I think Welsh is a great example, because it has such an amazing history but has been very underrepresented, and doesn’t often get the love it deserves. This could be an opportunity for Welsh people to share their language with the entire world.

What are your expectations and hopes for Untranslatable?

I’ve realised that many sayings actually do have similar roots in different languages, which is amazing. Something that feels very cultural and very personal can in fact be a sentiment everyone can relate to. Beyond that, I think it can make learning (about) different languages a lot more fun. Usually, idioms are something for more advanced speakers, and you can really only find them once you have a better understanding of the language. With Untranslatable, anyone can find expressions in any language, and more importantly, from any place. I hope that if people visit, for example, the North of Colombia, they will be able to look up not just basic phrases in Spanish, but Spanish specifically from that region. Being able to say something like “what’s up?” in someone’s dialect can make you instantly connect with them.

What advice would you give to language learners?

Expose yourself to the language and watch films! It’s also very important to know why you are learning a language. Having foreign friends helps so much, because you have the clear goal of wanting to understand them.

You’re from the Netherlands. What’s a typically Dutch expression you think is untranslatable?

One of my favourites is “de kat uit de boom kijken” which translates as “to watch/stare the cat out of the tree”, and it means to not take action, but wait and see. Kind of like when you are at a party but you aren’t sure if you like it or not, so you sit in a corner and look around, without taking any initiative.