Lost in Translation
1 lurker |
8 watchers
Oct 2023
12:47pm, 19 Oct 2023
18,186 posts
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Sweetie
Following LindsDs excellent blog about the complexity of translation it starting me thinking about some of the worst mistranslations I have come across over the years. I often use Spanish subtitles when watching English TV programs and I guess these are bashed out quite quickly because some of those translations can be waaaay off!: An episode of Brooklyn Nine-Nine where one character asked “Is that your take away?” (i.e. is that what you understand from this) and the translation was “Is that your lunch?” My kids didn’t stop giggling for about an hour after finding an English menu translation in Spain for “Ball meat pasta” (instead of meatballs). I am also not immune to these errors, once mixing up the Spanish words for utility / storage room (trastero) with the word for backside (trasero), it raised a few eyebrows when I tried to explain where my leaky pipe was!  Share your translation howlers here… |
Oct 2023
12:55pm, 19 Oct 2023
2,723 posts
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Muttley
I work from Russian. Some years back I had a report about a warship that accidentally fired a live shell which flew inland and came down in an area of marsh or swamp, injuring an old man who lived nearby. The translators at the Russian news agency were a little hazy on 1. articles in English and 2. colloquialisms. In their version the shell landed in the bog and traumatized the elderly inhabitant. |
Oct 2023
5:07pm, 19 Oct 2023
48,182 posts
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HappyG(rrr)
I have limited French and German, but more than once I have watched a programme with English subtitles and thought "that's not quite what they said!" So even at my level I can tell that compromises have been made. I wonder how much richer movies Train to Busan and Parasite if one understood the native language. Sorry, haven't got any humdingers. And spillover from Retirement THread, but how could anyone be bored who had enough money to live, and not work - just learning the languages of the people of the world would keep you busy... for ever! G
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Oct 2023
5:19pm, 19 Oct 2023
64,590 posts
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LindsD
I think I need to write another blog about subtitles.... And thanks for the kind words. |
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Oct 2023
5:21pm, 19 Oct 2023
64,591 posts
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LindsD
[Machine translation for the first one, Sweetie.]
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Oct 2023
5:22pm, 19 Oct 2023
64,592 posts
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LindsD
Hello Muttley Wonder if we'll discover any other translators. |
Oct 2023
5:42pm, 19 Oct 2023
2,792 posts
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Totriornottotri
I used to regularly mix up bombilla (light bulb) and bombona (gas cyclinder) is Spanish. I am fluent in Spanish although so words probably make me think! I enjoy Patry Ruiz on instagram who is very funny with similar words. |
Oct 2023
7:11pm, 19 Oct 2023
7,811 posts
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um
After a few rounds of converting (and automating) quote and invoice templates into (if I remember) 42 different languages, with quite a few column heading abbreviations, I soon learnt that I needed 2 or 3 'super users' in each country to proof read & correct the results. And since they were legal docs, a lawyer in each country to ensure any necessary comments were included. Or, as in Japan, required seals waterprinted on each doc. I forget the country, but I did get one call asking why our quote (for commercial IT SW) kept referring to 'washing machines'. I've no idea how or what triggered that. |
Oct 2023
7:33pm, 19 Oct 2023
14,520 posts
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HowFar?
There was a story a while ago about a Welsh council who put up a bilingual road sign. They had emailed the translation office to make sure everything was okay. The English message read something like “ No entry for heavy vehicles.” Underneath that they had the Welsh version, which they had received in the email from the translator... “I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.” |
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Oct 2023
7:58pm, 19 Oct 2023
18,190 posts
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Sweetie
That's a classic one HowFar and has happened on more than one occasion too! Definitely good proof readers as well as good translators needed! Russian has always appealed to me Muttley - how did you end up doing that? For Netflix translations there are credits for subtitles at the end, so I had assumed it was human rather than machine translation (unless the human is just proof reading?) and my D-I-Ls sister has done some Welsh subtitling for Netflix. |
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