| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Poll: What's the most memorable translation mistake you've seen? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Lingua 5B 
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:05
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Justin Peterson wrote: Lingua 5B wrote: “blister” (medical source) “Remove pill from the blister” Source:  Translator: 
The blister was completely obvious from the context, not sure where they got the blister (condition) from. In pharma environment, they sometimes shorten it to “blister” as it repeats many times, everybody knows what it is. Just like in cooking environment “maple syrup” maybe be shortened to “maple”.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:05
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| Another one/office situation | Feb 7 |
When I worked at UN, employees spoke English with varied degrees of proficiency.
One day a colleague came in laughing because somebody from another office approached him and said: “I was finding you, there is no you”.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:05
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Justin Peterson wrote:
A few years ago, in an unbelievable blunder, the Community of Madrid actually implemented a massive advertising campaign to promote its bilingual school initiative.
The slogan, plastered all over Metro walls, and buses, etc.: "Yes, We Want" (to which every native speaker responded, in their heads, "want WHAT?")
Apparently, they were inspired by Obama's famous Yes We Can
After spending hundreds of thousands of euros (millions?) on the material and ad spaces ... apparently they were too cheap, and/or oblivious, to simply ask a group of native speakers whether the English was correct and sounded right (!!!!!)
UNBELIEVABLE
It may be that Spanish does not require direct object for “want” like English does. Very funny though. Or when translated without an object, it probably makes sense in Spanish, and they followed that logic, LMAO.
On the other hand, transitive verbs can’t be left hanging without an object in English. But who cares about grammar when everybody englishes?
| | | | | unappetizing item of menu | Feb 7 |
Another one I recall seeing personally was a menu item translated as 'boiled language', where they were to use 'tongue'. (it's the same word in Russian for both 'language' and 'tongue').
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| biscuits and cookies | Feb 7 |
Was watching a US western translated into EU Spanish. The scene took place during a dark night on the lonely plains and was centered on a lanky cowboy wearing chaps, spurs and a bandanna. He was hunched over a smoky campfire cooking something on a griddle. Into the campfire light steps another cowboy, similarly dressed, but pointing a pistol at the man over the griddle. He cocks the gun and says in a threatening voice, "Dame esas galletas."
Oh, the perils of translating from a variant you ... See more Was watching a US western translated into EU Spanish. The scene took place during a dark night on the lonely plains and was centered on a lanky cowboy wearing chaps, spurs and a bandanna. He was hunched over a smoky campfire cooking something on a griddle. Into the campfire light steps another cowboy, similarly dressed, but pointing a pistol at the man over the griddle. He cocks the gun and says in a threatening voice, "Dame esas galletas."
Oh, the perils of translating from a variant you don't know well. In the US, "biscuits" are a kind of small leavened roll somewhat similar to British scones (and definitely part of the cowboy/pioneer diet), while in the UK, "biscuits" are what are called "cookies" in the US.
[Editado a las 2024-02-07 16:26 GMT]
Another I've just recalled: Seeing "ancas de rana" on a Chinese restaurant's menu translated as "frogs bums".
[Editado a las 2024-02-07 16:37 GMT]
[Editado a las 2024-02-07 16:39 GMT]
[Editado a las 2024-02-07 16:41 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 08:05
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
"Old mother's grandmother" from a restaurant menu in China comes to mind (there were a lot more of interesting items on that same menu which I no longer remember). We didn't try it.
Apart from that, there have been too many to remember, I have sometimes thought of starting a collection. Lately, those would mostly include machine translations which are too literal and wrong or even opposite to the intended meaning, simply hilarious and sometimes even strangely pornographic (with the ... See more "Old mother's grandmother" from a restaurant menu in China comes to mind (there were a lot more of interesting items on that same menu which I no longer remember). We didn't try it.
Apart from that, there have been too many to remember, I have sometimes thought of starting a collection. Lately, those would mostly include machine translations which are too literal and wrong or even opposite to the intended meaning, simply hilarious and sometimes even strangely pornographic (with the source being completely innocent)... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:05
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| In the middle of a technical manual | Feb 7 |
Out of the blue, in the middle of an English source technical manual, I found this phrase:
“Open up your penis.”
It was an industrial machine that had nothing to do with male genitals.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 07:05
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
Liena Vijupe wrote:
"Old mother's grandmother" from a restaurant menu in China comes to mind (there were a lot more of interesting items on that same menu which I no longer remember). We didn't try it.
Apart from that, there have been too many to remember, I have sometimes thought of starting a collection. Lately, those would mostly include machine translations which are too literal and wrong or even opposite to the intended meaning, simply hilarious and sometimes even strangely pornographic (with the source being completely innocent)...
Like these: https://youtu.be/qOjSMoXbKww?si=r0Z4K-UK8Ruqi35Z
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Liena Vijupe
Latvia
Local time: 08:05
Member (2014)
French to Latvian
+ ...
When I was a kid, my cousin and I used to entertain ourselves translating song lyrics as literally as possible. Our greatest hit was "Back for good" using "back" as a noun (part of the body).
This wasn't ours, but I was recently greatly amused hearing "Bye, Bye, Baby (Baby, Goodbye)" being translated in my language as "Buy, buy a child, a child - a good purchase".
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 07:05
Spanish to English
+ ...
The most memorable and numerous translation mistakes I've seen have been from my EDI client. Sometimes they send me SW strings to translate from Spanish to English, and it is pretty obvious that the Spanish has been mistranslated from English, or occasionally another language. I have a long list of them, but it's in table format and when I tried to post it here it came up all over the place. Here's a sample of some of them (the first words are the erroneous "Spanish" terms).
patio p... See more The most memorable and numerous translation mistakes I've seen have been from my EDI client. Sometimes they send me SW strings to translate from Spanish to English, and it is pretty obvious that the Spanish has been mistranslated from English, or occasionally another language. I have a long list of them, but it's in table format and when I tried to post it here it came up all over the place. Here's a sample of some of them (the first words are the erroneous "Spanish" terms).
patio por hora -> (yard per hour).
sacudir -> A shake es a unit of informal time equal to 10 nanoseconds, or 10-8 seconds.
picotear -> Peck. Although spelled the same, it is not the same thing; moreover, "picotear/peck" is a verb…
babosa -> Wrong kind of slug! Slug is a unit of mass in the FPS system of units (Foot-Pound-Second system:
mucho calor -> Heat lot. A heat number or heat lot is an identification number that is stamped on a material plate to prove it meets industry quality standards
culo -> Butt ( a type of barrel). NOT the gluteus maximus.
Apologies to anyone who doesn't know Spanish, but I can assure you they can be quite amusing. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Arne Krueger
Germany
Local time: 07:05
German to English
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German source: Flugzeug
English target: Flystuff
German source: Staubsauger
English target: Dustsucker
Turkish source: SORUN VARDIR KULLANMAYINIZ!
English target: Do not use the problem!
German source: Kernseife
English target: nuclear soap
German source: Unternehmer
English target: Undertaker
Or when reading bilingual medical transcripts about men's chests and chest is always breast...
[Bearbei... See more German source: Flugzeug
English target: Flystuff
German source: Staubsauger
English target: Dustsucker
Turkish source: SORUN VARDIR KULLANMAYINIZ!
English target: Do not use the problem!
German source: Kernseife
English target: nuclear soap
German source: Unternehmer
English target: Undertaker
Or when reading bilingual medical transcripts about men's chests and chest is always breast...
[Bearbeitet am 2024-02-07 18:59 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 06:05
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Lingua 5B wrote:
..... In pharma environment, they sometimes shorten it to “blister”......, everybody knows what it is.
Not only in pharma - everywhere.
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I wasted an embarrassing amount of time trying to figure out what "cousin materials" were in a revision I was doing. Turns out they were raw materials (materias primas in Spanish). ¡Viva la traducción literal!
| | | | Tony Keily
Local time: 07:05
Italian to English
+ ...
European Commission MT output for a FR-EN document on fishing and fishers: 'sinners and sinners' families'.
In the window of Barcelona restaurant years ago. "FOOD TO EAT HERE AND LEAVE".
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 07:05
French to English
My Impossible Intern had to translate a text about the history of Versailles. It was way over her head, but I hadn't yet realised that she had someone else do her translation test.
Bearing in mind that "hameau" is French for a "hamlet" as in a few houses grouped together, not enough to be called a village.
She translated "le Hameau que Marie Antoinette affectionnait tant" (hameau being inexplicably capitalised...) as "the place where Hamlet and Marie Antoinette fell in love"... See more My Impossible Intern had to translate a text about the history of Versailles. It was way over her head, but I hadn't yet realised that she had someone else do her translation test.
Bearing in mind that "hameau" is French for a "hamlet" as in a few houses grouped together, not enough to be called a village.
She translated "le Hameau que Marie Antoinette affectionnait tant" (hameau being inexplicably capitalised...) as "the place where Hamlet and Marie Antoinette fell in love".
But I can one-up myself! Or rather the Impossible Intern could!! A few days later she came in to work and recounted how she nearly got gang-raped the night before. She had been wandering around Paris and found herself in rue St Denis (the red-light district). A couple of guys approached her, presumably asking her price. She wanted to tell them to "go away", but instead of "Allez-vous-en" she said "On y va" (Let's go).
So of course they followed her. I can't help but laugh imagining their confusion as she kept repeating "On y va!" with increasing vehemence, they must have been thinking they were in for a pretty spicy time!
(I told her that until she could learn to speak better French, "F--- off" would do nicely, everyone understands that, even in France.) ▲ Collapse
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