| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] > | Mistranslations leading to disasters Thread poster: Viktoria Gimbe
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| What a pity!! | Mar 28, 2009 |
The topic looked really interesting and it caught my attention while browsing this afternoon through ProZ. I was hoping to find a list of several mistranslations, not only of books but also movies, signs, notifications, documents in general, etc.
It was a pity to see that only one book is mentioned (the Bible) and that the whole discussion centered just on it, as if there was nothing else to discuss about...
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Cristina Heraud-van Tol wrote:
It was a pity to see that only one book is mentioned (the Bible) and that the whole discussion centered just on it, as if there was nothing else to discuss about...
Cristina, we are listening! Go ahead.
| | | | | It could have been a disaster | Mar 28, 2009 |
To return to the original purpose of this thread, this is a mistranslation I witnessed that could have lead to a “disaster” but I am not aware that it did.
Nearly two decades ago, I was on a small airplane, a 12 to 16 seater, flying from Guadalajara, MX, to a coastal city on the Pacific ocean. I was going to attend to a deposition, taken in Mexico by the parties' agreement (the litigation was filed in Texas). My job was simply to verify that the official interpreter did not mak... See more To return to the original purpose of this thread, this is a mistranslation I witnessed that could have lead to a “disaster” but I am not aware that it did.
Nearly two decades ago, I was on a small airplane, a 12 to 16 seater, flying from Guadalajara, MX, to a coastal city on the Pacific ocean. I was going to attend to a deposition, taken in Mexico by the parties' agreement (the litigation was filed in Texas). My job was simply to verify that the official interpreter did not make any legally significant mistake. The disputed amount justified the expense.
Because it was a small airplane, the oxygen mask was in the bag at the back of the seat in front of me. On the back of the seat, there were two plates, one in Spanish, the other in English, with instructions on how to use the oxygen mask.
John, the other attorney-linguist having the same job as I, but working for the other side, passed by my seat on his way to his seat located further back on the plane. I told him: “When you are in your seat, take a look at the instructions on how to use the oxygen mask.”
A couple of minutes later, I heard John laughing and saying: "Hey, Luis. Now we would know, if anything goes wrong, who are the monolingual English speaker on this plane. They will be the blue-faced ones.
Explanation: The plate in English said: “Insert the tube connecting to the oxygen mask to the tip above your seat. Breathe easily.” In Spanish it said ”Insert the tube connecting to the oxygen mask to the tip above your seat. GIRE LA PERILLA HACIA LA DERECHA (turn the knob to the right). Breathe easily."
Greetings to all,
Luis ▲ Collapse
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Natalie 
Poland
Local time: 22:10
Member (2002)
English to Russian
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MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER
I am sorry for stepping in and removing part of this thread. Please do not take this as 'censorship'.
Translation of the Bible is an extremely interesting topic, however a very sensitive one. It requires special tactfulness. Unless we are able of doing this in such a way that it would not be percepted as offensive by other members, I would like to ask everybody to refrain from discussing it. We don't want any disasters here, do we?
Have a nice and peaceful weekend, eve... See more I am sorry for stepping in and removing part of this thread. Please do not take this as 'censorship'.
Translation of the Bible is an extremely interesting topic, however a very sensitive one. It requires special tactfulness. Unless we are able of doing this in such a way that it would not be percepted as offensive by other members, I would like to ask everybody to refrain from discussing it. We don't want any disasters here, do we?
Have a nice and peaceful weekend, everybody!
Natalia ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Sorry Natalie but I do | Mar 28, 2009 |
Natalie wrote:
I am sorry for stepping in and removing part of this thread. Please do not take this as 'censorship'.
Translation of the Bible is an extremely interesting topic, however a very sensitive one. It requires special tactfulness. Unless we are able of doing this in such a way that it would not be percepted as offensive by other members, I would like to ask everybody to refrain from discussing it. We don't want any disasters here, do we?
Have a nice and peaceful weekend, everybody!
Natalia
If you had only removed the postings by those who decided to turn this thread into a discussion about their own private religious beliefs, I would have been all behind you. But you also choose to removed Narasimhan's original, non-religious, posting about a word in a text (considered religious by some) possibly having been mistranslated.
That posting was part of what could have been an interesting linguistic discussion.
| | | | Nesrin
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:10
English to Arabic
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| Milliards, billions and trillions | Mar 28, 2009 |
Michelle Plaistow wrote:
I did hear a story about a misplaced decimal point in a table related to the construction of a nuclear power plant, but not sure if that's just an urban myth or not.
I wouldn't be able to give you examples of such mistranslations, but I can swear that they're happening on a daily basis in translations from English into Arabic, and vice versa. We all know the story of how, on the European continent, 1 milliard is a thousand million, while 1 billion is a million million. In the US - and for some time in the UK - it's 1 billion for a thousand million, and 1 trillion for a million million.
In the Arab world, we're now in this incredibly dangerous state of transition. Up until a few years ago, everyone knew that the terms to use in Arabic are "milliard" and "billion". Then gradually, some Arab countries - probably started with some individuals really - decided to go the American way, while others remained continental. It appears that people are now left to choose the system they prefer, and that often depends on where they get their information from!!
I wouldn't be surprised if it was a translator who was first responsible for that trend. I can't count the number of times I've seen translators lazily translate billion to billion where it should have been milliard... What's a few zeroes on the right anyway??
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Natalie
Poland
Local time: 22:10
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...
MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER | Dear Madeleine | Mar 28, 2009 |
The title of this thread is "Mistranslations leading to disasters". So let us keep the discussion within this topic. I believe, there are many interesting examples that would perfectly fit here.
Natalia
| | | | | Dear Natalia | Mar 29, 2009 |
Natalie wrote:
The title of this thread is "Mistranslations leading to disasters". So let us keep the discussion within this topic. I believe, there are many interesting examples that would perfectly fit here.
Natalia
Mistranslations of a text which is read, in some cases verbatim, by a large section of humanity, can lead to disasters. So very much on topic. I can think of a few occasions, but will refrain from mentioning them as that would lead us into a religious discussion - something I'm very much trying to avoid.
Back to Narasimhan's original posting, it dealt with a linguistic issue and was in no way religious and should have been left. But somehow it was purged together with the ensuing postings which were clearly coloured by the posters' religious beliefs.
| | | | Natalie
Poland
Local time: 22:10
Member (2002)
English to Russian
+ ...
MODERATOR SITE LOCALIZER | Erroneous translation led to a medical error | Mar 29, 2009 |
Recently, a series of 47 consecutive patients with falsely implanted total knee arthroplasties was reported in German newspapers.
A root cause analysis revealed that one of the contributing factors leading to wrong use of this implant was related to the original package labeled in English language. The labeling of the femoral component packaging as "non-modular cemented" was erroneously translated to "non-cemented" or "without cement" by t... See more Recently, a series of 47 consecutive patients with falsely implanted total knee arthroplasties was reported in German newspapers.
A root cause analysis revealed that one of the contributing factors leading to wrong use of this implant was related to the original package labeled in English language. The labeling of the femoral component packaging as "non-modular cemented" was erroneously translated to "non-cemented" or "without cement" by the responsible hospital staff.
http://www.pssjournal.com/content/1/1/5 ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Linguistic issue | Mar 29, 2009 |
I have seen the removed posts yesterday.
Madeleine is totally right.
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
Back to Narasimhan's original posting, it dealt with a linguistic issue and was in no way religious and should have been left. But somehow it was purged together with the ensuing postings which were clearly coloured by the posters' religious beliefs. Exactly. Interesting examples of mistranslations in the Bible on a linguistic level. Not offending at all.
No need for indignation and removing the posts.
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Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 22:10
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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| Related perhaps... | Mar 29, 2009 |
ViktoriaG wrote:
On this forum, there have been discussions of professional insurance and real-life stories of translators being responsible for messages lost in translation resulting in serious consequences.
Aside: Aw, what a pity I missed the Bible translation debacle!
On-topic: What I would love to see are some bitexts where the English contains the word "cupertino" to see how the translators decided to translate it, before the existence of the cupertino effect became generally known. Another interesting research topic may be to identify common typos in English and check in bitexts how they were translated -- and if translators noticed the typo (e.g. "hope to year from you soon" with the translation having something annual about it).
| | | | | Stepping over the line | Mar 29, 2009 |
Madeleine MacRae Klintebo wrote:
Back to Narasimhan's original posting, it dealt with a linguistic issue and was in no way religious and should have been left.
Entirely correct. The action taken was inappropriate. I thought it was quite an interesting bit of historical information related to a work where not only mistranslation or purported mistranslation has led to conflicts of rather disastrous severity, but even the mere act of translation has done so (look up Jan Hus or William Tynsdale, for example).
What I remember of the subsequent discussion was largely OT but carried on in a respectful manner (the part I saw at least), so I didn't feel that part of the discussion to be a blight on the forum or a reason for me to start waving the Hitchins/Dawkins banner.
The politics of translation and interpreting are often fascinating; sometimes, as with the famous slips with Jimmy Carter or the more recent embarrassment with Hillary Clinton these involve actual mistakes, sometimes the "mistake" is a matter of social, political or religious context. I was fascinated to read some months ago about trouble caused by a translation of the Koran because it attempted to convey the text in a fluent manner in a local language and because the original Arabic was left out. I appreciate reports like that or Narasimhan's information, because they offer a cultural context for "mistakes" of a sort that could indeed have deadly consequences.
| | | | Alex Lago
Spain
Local time: 22:10
English to Spanish
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| Proz not about religion | Mar 29, 2009 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote: Alex Lago wrote:
This post should be censored, it has gone too far into religion which some of us find offensive to our intellect. What I find offensive is a request for censorship in Proz. Cheers!
When i said censore I meant it broke the forum rules and therefore should be cut from Proz, there are forums for religious discussion and this is not one of them. Proz is about translation not religion. You are entitled to your beliefs but the rest of us do not have to put up with hearing them. If you want to discuss religion use one of the millions of religious forums, do not use a translators forum. if you consider that censorhip, bad luck.
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