United States Armed Forces

Meet the Latest Enemy of American Forces in Afghanistan - Language!

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• published: 08 Jun 2016
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Lost in Translation (2008): Behind the linguistic obstacles facing American troops in the warzone. For similar stories, see: Afghan Government Forces Are Locked In A Losing Battle With The Taliban https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8OIV1qGNp0Y Can the former King unite Afghanistan against more upheaval? (2001) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ze6NKtOr8V0 Why The Taliban Dropped Their Weapons https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GwT0SMdWHhw Subscribe to journeyman for daily uploads: http://www.youtube.com/journeymanpictures For downloads and more information visit: http://www.journeyman.tv/film/4052 Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/journeymanpictures Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JourneymanVOD https://twitter.com/JourneymanNews Follow us on Instagram: https://instagram.com/journeymanpictures US forces in Afghanistan face an unexpected enemy: the language barrier. They need villagers to cooperate but inaccurate translations keep defeating them. Here is one comically absurd example of failed communication. An increasing number of Taliban rockets has been hitting Charlie Company. The source of the attacks was located near Mangratay, a small Afghan village. Sergeant Adams is sent to Mangratay to speak to the local elders about the attacks. As always, he finds a ghost town: ‘everybody has just disappeared.’ Finally, a man appears but he only speaks Pashto. Asked about the level of security in the area, he replies that ‘there is no security’. Inexplicably, this gets translated to: ‘We are fine; there are no problems here.’ The translators have become empowered and inject their own interpretation into everything. Although the elder clearly indicates he wants to cooperate, the translator fails to convey his answers, And so it goes on. The old Afghan offers the American soldier a parable; 'The Taliban are like little ants, there is no way to keep them from the wheat' is translated to 'the Taliban are behind this mountain'. This is a familiar situation to Sergeant Adams, who leaves swearing and angry. A week later, more rockets hit the same area. Time after time the Americans and ordinary Afghans fail to understand one another. Never was the absurdity of war more obvious than here. Guardian Films – Ref. 4052 Journeyman Pictures is your independent source for the world's most powerful films, exploring the burning issues of today. We represent stories from the world's top producers, with brand new content coming in all the time. On our channel you'll find outstanding and controversial journalism covering any global subject you can imagine wanting to know about