Off topic: Hilarious(and quite public) translation mishap!
Michael Grant Japan Local time: 01:04 Japanese to English
Jul 22, 2011
Hi all,
My colleague sent me a link to this hilarious article on the BBC Web site about a missed translation...if you read Welsh, you'll get it right away, if not, here is a hint:
The article is entitled E-mail error ends up on road sign ...
How embarrassing!!!
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Tomás Cano Binder, CT Spain Local time: 18:04 Member (2005) English to Spanish + ...
OK, who pays?
Jul 22, 2011
I think it would be good to know how much correcting the sign will cost. The cost should be deducted from the salary of the person who made the mistake, instead of the taxpayer footing the bill.
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RobinB Germany Local time: 18:04 German to English
This has been doing the rounds for some time now
Jul 22, 2011
And to prove there's nothing new under the sun, something similar happened around 1700 years ago which illustrates that even back then, ignorance about a language (in this case Latin) can have unintended humourous consequences. A grave inscription from the late Roman/early Middle Ages period unearthed in Annaba, Algeria, reads:
HIC IACET CORPUS PUERI NOMINANDI
which translates as "Here lies the body of a boy, insert name"
It's assumed that both the stonemason (and probably the persons commissioning the inscription) didn't actually know any Latin, but just copied it out from a Latin source.
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"Everything these days seems to be written first in English and then translated.
"Ideally, they should be written separately in both languages."
Are people so used to bad (i.e. odd-sounding) translations that they now consider them a standard? That they think translation is something else than writing the source text in the target language?
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matt robinson Spain Local time: 18:04 Member (2010) Spanish to English
Honest mistake
Jul 23, 2011
Tomás, you sound like you're still smarting from your latest tax declaration!
[Edited at 2011-07-23 19:59 GMT]
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