Diving concept of "visibility" in other (non-English) languages?

[RJP]

Was speaking with some people the other day regarding "conceptual translation vs literal translation" after a particularly funny experience on a plane: A flight attendant was trying her best to convey the beverage option of "light beer" to someone who did not speak English. Unfortunately, her best attempt involved pointing to the passenger's overhead reading lamp and saying "light-o" and then pointing to the drink cart and saying "beer-o" while miming taking a drink. I guess it never occurred to her that the concept of "low calorie, less filling" has absolutely nothing to do with the concept of "passing electrons through a metal filament inside a vacuum tube for the purposes of generating emission of photons in the direction of reading material." (That or the passenger thought the flight attendant was saying "I'm so drunk, I can't see the beverage cart.")



Got me thinking how common scuba terms may or may not translate into other languages.

For instance, every English speaking diver understands what "visibility" means in the context of diving. And of course, translating that word into other languages is simple enough:

Spanish - Visibilidad
Italian - Visibilità
French - Visibilité
Portuguese - Visibilidade

So, my question is: does the diving CONCEPT of "visibility" translates directly with the term itself? What are the accepted terms for the CONCEPT of "visibility" in Italian? French? Spanish? Is that different in Mexico vs Spain? Any other language?

Note: I am not asking whether a French diver would UNDERSTAND the English term "visibility" or the direct translation of "visibilité" in the context of diving. I'm asking what term would one native French-speaking diver use to communicate the concept of "visibility" to another native French-speaking diver.

Any other examples of very common English scuba terms where the literal translation completely missed the mark conceptually in other languages?

 

[Doc]

Note: I am not asking whether a French diver would UNDERSTAND the English term "visibility" or the direct translation of "visibilité" in the context of diving. I'm asking what term would one native French-speaking diver use to communicate the concept of "visibility" to another native French-speaking diver.

Good. 'Cause once I was skiing in Chamonix and went into a bar and held up the standard two Cub Scout fingers and said "beers" whilst smiling. The French bartender looked at me as if I were a talking cat.

So let's leave the French out of this. Just sayin'. (Disclaimer: I do have a CMAS card and BEES1er)

The next question might also be the wild interpretations of what really is 80' visibility. Literal translations can get you in Dutch.

CAVU

 

[Kharon]

The next question might also be the wild interpretations of what really is 80' visibility

Technically, visibility is the distance at whcih a secchi disk disapears when lowered from the surface.

 

[emoreira]

Technically, visibility is the distance at whcih a secchi disk disapears when lowered from the surface.

Vertical visibility could normally be greater than horizontal visibility. Secchi method was defined for vertical visibility. Divers normally mean horizontal visibility.

At least in spanish when we, divers, speak about visibility in the water, we use the word "visibilidad".
In Argentina, al least, we are open minded related to languages, we use many english words in our everyday talk, this specially related to computer, telecommunications and general technical matters. We also aggregate english words to our language and we apply spanish declinations to english words and verbs.
We are not like people from Spain, where they do translate every word.

The buoyancy concept in english translates to spanish as "flotabilidad", this relates to a buoy that floats in the water.
In spanish "Una boya que flota en el agua". Though the sentence can be easily understood and the translation seems to be pretty straightforward, the Buoyancy to Flotabilidad translation is not so easily related.

 

[Wingy]

Viz is Viz in french - le visability e'tait bien sur le plongee. Simplified most of the time when Ive dived with french ops the convo at surfacing is generally a thumbs up and Bon Viz or Merde Viz.

 

[Storker]

In Norwegian, the term is "sikt". Same root as "sight" in English.

We distinguish between visibility as the opposite of invisibility (synlighet/usynlighet), and visibility as in "how far can you see" (sikt).

And around here, light beer is lower in alcohol, not just in taste and calories...

--
Sent from my Android phone
Typos are a feature, not a bug

 

[DivemasterDennis]

Order 2 beers in french by saying "Deux de la bier pour moi, si vous plait." In Spanish, "dos cervesas, pour favor" Now that the important question is answered, lets talk visibility. "Visibility" in diving is the same as in other applications, referring to how far you can see, so that term translates without difficulty to other languages. It is the colloquial terms and "jargon" that does not always translte directly. One example related to diving might be "trim" which has a lot of different menaings, but only divers think of trim as body position control. If casually translated, trim in another language might be heard as inquiry about clothes tailoring, hair style, or even "man scaping." SO much of language is local usage, even when we think we are translating accurately funny sentences can result.
DivemasterDennis

 

[Mikko Ilari Laakkonen]

In Finnish it's "näkyväisyys"

 

[Redshift]

Yes, in Portuguese the used word would be "visibilidade".

 

[FinnMom]

In Finnish it's "näkyväisyys"

Or "näkyvyys" which isn't precisely the same but IMO preferable because it's easier to say and easier to spell