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Lost In Translation / Engrish

Rynner said:
Ah, those crazy foreigners, eh?

But in a Cornish pub today (for a works Xmas do) I spotted a chalked up menu which included Coq au Van...

(I pointed this out out to my boss and his wife, both educated and well travelled people, and they didn't spot the error!)

Any suggestions about which 'van' might be most appropriate in this dish?
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I seem to recall that, in Blackadder Goes Forth, "Rat au van" was rat which had been run over by a van. Maybe they're doing the same thing with chicken in Cornwall these days? Yummy!
 
No Engrish was harmed in this - er - cock-up:
Google Translate error sees Spanish town advertise clitoris festival
Organisers in As Pontes ‘quite surprised’ to learn food festival celebrating Galician vegetable grelo had been mistranslated
Ashifa Kassam in Madrid
Tuesday 3 November 2015 16.21 GMT

It was meant to be a culinary festival celebrating grelo, the leafy green vegetable that is a staple in the Galician town of As Pontes in north-west Spain.
But for the past few months, the small town was marketing a very different kind of festival after it used Google Translate to put the Galician word grelo into Castilian Spanish, ending up with it inviting people to take part in a “clitoris festival”.
“It was quite a surprise,” Montserrat García, the town’s spokeswoman, told the Guardian. “At first, we didn’t believe what we were seeing.”

Local officials in As Pontes – population 11,000 – had written the announcement for the annual festival in Galician, one of the official languages of the northern Spanish region. They used Google Translate for the Spanish-language version of the text.
It meant the town’s “Feria do grelo” or rapini festival – held every February with tastings and awards for the best grelos – became “Feria clítoris” in Spanish.

The translated announcement read: “The clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine. Since 1981 ... the festival has made the clitoris one of the star products of its local gastronomy.”
García said the translation error was likely on the town’s official website for months before it was noticed late last week. :p

etc...

http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...es-spain-clitoris-food-festival-grelo-galicia
 
After being at such a festival, you'll be invited to 'come again'. ;)
 
This cheap Chinese USB car power supply appears to have a commensurately-cheap marketing translation. But it's priceless....

Land,s End USB & Twin Socket
Offer You Unexpected Driving Experiences

2016-05-19 21.58.41.jpg


Unexpected driving experiences? High-pitched whistling whilst braking? Random chimpanzee encounters in the car-wash? Being eaten by the sat nav??
 
Some years ago I was in the Czech republic and saw a restaurant (think it was in Brno) advertising in English such delicacies as 'fish discharge' and 'sausage discharge'. Never sure what they were.
 
bushkindle said:
Some years ago I was in the Czech republic and saw a restaurant (think it was in Brno) advertising in English such delicacies as 'fish discharge' and 'sausage discharge'. Never sure what they were.
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Perhaps they were trying to say "Reduced Prices"!
 
I keep seeing 'Descending Life Line' in Asian hotels. I appears to be some kind of primitive fire escape mechanism, but it seems like some form of memento mori.
 
Yithian said:
I keep seeing 'Descending Life Line' in Asian hotels. I appears to be some kind of primitive fire escape mechanism, but it seems like some form of memento mori.
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Give Gypsy Monstrosa a butcher's... *sucks teeth* Yer ascending lark is alright but yer descendin life-line... shakes head* I can put it right but it'll cost yer, even doing a foreigner/mate's rates it'll be...a bag of kola kubes and a fudge.
 
Ermintrude said:
This cheap Chinese USB car power supply appears to have a commensurately-cheap marketing translation. But it's priceless....

Land,s End USB & Twin Socket
Offer You Unexpected Driving Experiences

View attachment 2611

Unexpected driving experiences? High-pitched whistling whilst braking? Random chimpanzee encounters in the car-wash? Being eaten by the sat nav??
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It's almost as if they're saying 'may you live in interesting times'.
 
Spanish restaurant favorites are - Stumbles with salad, grilled customs officers and octopus to the party. Some older restaurant owners just go for the first dictionary entry...
 
I hate when sad stories inadvertently make me laugh as I want to post them but don't want to seem disrespectful. I have redacted it so that hopefully it can't be followed back to here. Very sad story about a young lad being killed but loved this mistranslation of a Scottish word.

[he] was a wee raj and my wee best pal from birth
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The word is RADGE and means something different though was obviously being used in affection here.

(RIP wee radge)
 
GIGO strikes again ...

Google Translate glitch changes gibberish to prophecy
Google's online translation tools are setting Internet conspiracy theorists ablaze after a glitch was discovered that turns gibberish into Biblical prophecies.

The Google Translate glitch, which was popularized by posts on Reddit, can be accessed by typing the English word "dog" 18 times and telling the tool to translate the text from Maori.

"Doomsday Clock is three minutes at twelve We are experiencing characters and a dramatic developments in the world, which indicate that we are increasingly approaching the end times and Jesus' return," the translated text reads.

Redditors, some of whom have concocted doomsday conspiracy theories based on the glitch, discovered other ways to trick the translator, including putting in the text "do nal d tru mp do nal d tru mp do nal d tru mp" and translating from Somali, causing the English translation to read: "Do not do this anymore."

Another disturbing glitch involves typing the word "goo" 13 times and translating from Somali, creating the translation: "Cut off the penis into pieces, cut it into pieces."

Google officials explained the translation tool learns by reading text from elsewhere on the Internet.

... "This is simply a function of inputting nonsense into the system, to which nonsense is generated."
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SOURCE: https://www.upi.com/Odd_News/2018/0.../?utm_source=sec&utm_campaign=sl&utm_medium=3
 
I cant find a thread devoted to the mistranslation or literal translations of things like signs, menus, film/book titles etc, if there is feel free to merge.
I'll start off with some signs, as they arw always good for a laugh

Screenshot_20210206-102759.jpg
 
That would be the Lost in Translation/Engrish thread
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/lost-in-translation-engrish.4006/

I’m assuming the search engine didn’t pick it up because translation/engrish would not be picked up by a search for translation. I’ve altered the title so that it will now pick it up, added spaces between the two words. I can never reminder how to merge threads, will have to write it down somewhere, so I will leave the physical merging to one of my esteemed colleagues.
 
gordonrutter said:
That would be the Lost in Translation/Engrish thread
https://forums.forteana.org/index.php?threads/lost-in-translation-engrish.4006/

I’m assuming the search engine didn’t pick it up because translation/engrish would not be picked up by a search for translation. I’ve altered the title so that it will now pick it up, added spaces between the two words. I can never reminder how to merge threads, will have to write it down somewhere, so I will leave the physical merging to one of my esteemed colleagues.
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Ok thank you, i did do a search but couldnt find anything :(
 
Souleater said:
Ok thank you, i did do a search but couldnt find anything :(
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No worries I think it was because the last two words are run into one and not separated by spaces, I’ve changed that on the title so hopefully should be easier for others to find.
 
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