Beware of the Babelfish!
Letting a machine loose on translation provides a rich seam of howlers, of which the following are but the tiny tip of the iceberg ...
Every datasheet should have an eye-catching heading
Guarentor for topped customer satisfaction und The established releably solution (Fortunately an eagle-eyed proofreader spotted this one before it went to print!)
A French website promises to control pests
Small animals nibble you the life? They give you thecockroach? XXX is with your services. But which are we? Yes, that certainly gives me the cockroach!
A good mailshot always makes an impact ...
Half statement of press publishes and distributes free sectors publications of
the most representative Spanish industry in order to collaborating exporter of the
products and manufactured of happiness in the expansion companies, for the one which
we have considered you could be of their interest know to the the detail the reference
of the fabric industrial Spaniard, of the that they are facilitated the reasons social,
complete adresses and description of the productive activity for medium from journalistic
reports. If we just knew what this Spanish company is trying to sell us, we're sure we'd want one.
Highly persuasive arguments for a German software package:
- The on-measure solution for everybody
- We do not let our potential customers roam in the fog
- Correct against the customer, friendly in the team
- Safe and powerful solution for the cashless payment in restaurants and coffee shops of company gastronomy and through sales automates and in shops of company sales
- In order to create the necessary premises we are entering your questions, ideas, desires and amelioration propositions into our new customer database Maybe someone should point them in the direction of an "on-measure" language solution to ameliorate their web marketing?
- We do not let our potential customers roam in the fog
- Correct against the customer, friendly in the team
- Safe and powerful solution for the cashless payment in restaurants and coffee shops of company gastronomy and through sales automates and in shops of company sales
- In order to create the necessary premises we are entering your questions, ideas, desires and amelioration propositions into our new customer database Maybe someone should point them in the direction of an "on-measure" language solution to ameliorate their web marketing?
Another German site ever so charmingly chronicles the history of Munich:
1158 - The place name was led back an upright standing monk with benediction hand and
gebetbuch already in the Middle Ages to "munich/muenich", thus "monk", why the first
delivered city seal (1239) already shows a monk head with zipfelmuetze, starting from 1304.
Like that it is today common as stadtwappen and city seals still in representative form.
... 1180 - Pfalzgraf petrol from the house Wittelsbach becomes duke of Bavaria. It begins the
government of this sex persisting to 1918 as dukes, cure prince and kings of Bavaria.
... 1481 - So far also still with several buildings, among other things a chapel, market
place cultivated from this is released and becomes only now the rectangular free space as
which it today presents itself. OK, that's enough history ...
Let's turn instead to the sheer poetry of an Italian mailshot
This publication has dedicated the necklace of nature classical hybrid and is extensive
in four tongues . to scholastic custom, whose production, that to full rhythm will be
of menstrual lilt, satisfies the Italian market, for which we retain, might fully interest you
it am because the commodity is economic. Yup, we want one!
The pratfalls of international marketing
Or, what not to name your new product
KINKI NIPPON TOURIST COMPANY This large Japanese tourist agency was forced to change its name for the English-speaking
market when it began receiving lots of requests for unusual sex tours.
ATHLETE'S FOOT As far as we're aware, this French sportswear retailer hasn't opened any branches in an
English-speaking country yet, otherwise they also might want to reconsider their name ...
FITTA This car was hastily rebranded the "Jazz" for the Scandinavian market after Honda discovered
that "fitta" is a colloquial term for a woman's private parts in no less than 3 Nordic languages.
PINTO Car-maker Ford thought the better of this name in Brazil when it transpired that "Pinto"
is Brazilian Portuguese slang for small male genitals. Not quite the image they were trying to
promote! (The car was rebadged "Corcel", which has a suitably manly meaning of "horse")
PRICK While we're on the subject, the Canadian Ikea store offering "Prick by the meter" must have had women queuing round the block. No doubt they were disappointed to learn that it was simply a polka-dot fabric ...
VIXEN The German ad campaign for Martech's computer game generated lots of strange phone inquiries - hardly surprising really, as its name is a homonym for a colloquialism denoting masturbation. (From then on the game was marketed in Germany under the name of She-Fox.)
PAJERO This marque has similar connotations in Spanish, so Mitsubishi saw the wisdom of selling this SUV as the "Montero" in Spanish-speaking countries.
PUFF TISSUES Unfortunately nothing to do with magic dragons in Germany, where "Puff" is a slang term for a brothel.
ZYKLON Umbro's running shoe unwittingly echoed the name of the gas used in Nazi extermination camps ...
WASH&GO Procter & Gamble's shampoo might have caused a bit of head-scratching in Russia, where "wash" sounds exactly like "vosh", the Russian word for louse.
PERT Sales of another shampoo from the P&G stable were unlikely to have taken off in French-speaking Quebec, where "pert" means "loss".
VICKS P&G didn't fare much better with their cough drops in Germany, overlooking the fact that Germans pronounce 'v' like the English 'f' so their brand name sounds like a well-known 4-letter word denoting sexual intercourse.
GUTVIK Ikea had a similar problem with this bunk bed ... or perhaps they were trying to promote sales?
FARTFULL The Ikea name-demon strikes again on this children's desk! (Or maybe they called in Billy Connolly as a consultant?)
HOOCH In Russia the name of this alcopop resembles an obscenity.
BLUE WATER A mineral water unlikely to be popular with Ukrainians, since it sounds like their word "bluvota", meaning "vomit".
PSCHITT Perrier's lemonade doesn't have quite the same ring in the anglophone world!
BARBERSKUM The Swedes may like this shaving foam, but it ain't exactly got much sex appeal on the English-speaking market.
ATUM BOM Nope, not a weapon of mass destruction, just a humble tin of Portuguese tuna.
COCK SOUP A marketing cock-up for the importers of this Jamaica Sun soup?
CRAPSY FRUIT Delicious French cereal!
POO Actually, the name of this Argentinian curry powder is probably rather apt.
CRAPP Surely there could be no better name for this Scandinavian brand of toilet paper - just think of all the fun you could have with advertising slogans!
Ooops we forgot the translation
Spent all the budget on fancy graphics and not enough left over for the text?
Get diarrhoea
This was the somewhat inappropriate literal translation of the Coors beer slogan "Turn it Loose" in Spanish
Fabriqué en Dinde In French-speaking Quebec a T-shirt made in Turkey was marked as the above instead of 'Fabriqué en Turquie'. If true, this would have been a masterpiece of modern production engineering, since dinde is the sort of turkey you eat at Christmas.
it won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant The Parker Pen company dropped a clanger by mistranslating "embarass" in a Mexican ad. It meant to say its pen "won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." Unfortunately, it used the "false friend" embarazar; the results, well see for yourself!
I saw the potato In 1987 a Miami T-shirt manufacturer printed shirts for the Spanish market to commemorate the Pope's visit. Only problem was, instead of using "el Papa" in its slogan "I saw the Pope", the t-shirt refered to "la papa" - the potato.
Refund! Patrons of an Italian McDonald's must have thought it was their lucky day when a sign proclaimed "Cauzione" - meaning refund. Unfortunately this transpired to be just a mistranslation of "Caution" (which should have read Attenzione) on a "wet floor" sign!
Micro tender rat This was the Italian translation of "Microsoft Mouse" in the instructions for a rival Taiwanese mouse.
Eat your fingers off! Kentucky Fried Chicken's famous slogan "Finger-lickin' good" reportedly came out rather less well in Chinese.
Baboon The Bacardi company planned to market a fruit drink called "Pavane" in Germany, but fortunately decided the better of it as the name was a bit too close to "Pavian", the German word for baboon.
Cue Colgate ran into problems with "Cue" toothpaste in France, where Cue is a notorious top-shelf magazine.
It takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate Poultry magnate Purdue gave Mexicans a chuckle when the equivalent of this text appeared on hundreds of billboards as the Spanish 'translation' of its slogan It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken.
Fiat Argenta Just sometimes, however, we cannot but sympathize with the poor marketer when the hand of fate decides to strike. Fiat launched its "Argenta" model in the early 1980s, just in time for the outbreak of the Falklands War. Don't think it ever really caught on in the UK ...
Pin the tail on the donkey - dictionary style
Here's some of that ropey English lovingly assembled from dictionaries that tends to accompany products from the Far East in particular ...
Chop Suey!
Please try Your Nice Chinese Food With Chopsticks. the traditional and typical If Chinaes glorious history and culture. ... Tuk under thurnb and hcld firmly Add second chcostick hold it as you hold a pencil Hold tirst chopstick in originai position move the second one up and down. Easy, isn't it?
To shave or not to shave, that is the question...
Smuggle the razor blade (reference value around 400 g) on your muscle vertically, then drag your skin and shave back slowly. Now who'd've thought instructions for a shaver could be so poetic?
We all fall down...
Assembly: 1. Attach upper pipe to pillar pipe and pull out pillar pipe until the top of upper pipe is reached to the ceiling. 2. Tighten the short bolt of pipe support connector all the way. 3. Turn pole to counter clockwise with holding rubber foot to have secured strong set up or you can turn rubber foot to clockwise. 4. Measuring appreciate height to hang clothes and fasten bracket tightly to poles. 5. Pull out cross bar to appreciate length Instructions for Japanese wardrobe fitting.
Instructions on a Greek deodorant stick
Push up bottom Ouch!
Bilge of the highest order
Setting Pre Ceiling Way and Means:
1. with appertain rotor of screw setting pre ceiling on the under standing that serew no wield. May wield two-faced, pressboard securing. wied pre to begin with wiping ceiling of bilge dasto.
2. Thread of length need half as many again as tad.
3. Open toy of batteries shuck. Verification batteries,+,-whereafter stow down to a certainty need locknat lest take place accident.
4. Hook through toys apside of hole.
5. Needs swithes shoving NO.for pre arrows specifying of orention shoving. Pack it up time, withbold toy pate, need switches shoving OFF. The instructions for this Action-man type toy are positively quadruple-Dutch!
1. with appertain rotor of screw setting pre ceiling on the under standing that serew no wield. May wield two-faced, pressboard securing. wied pre to begin with wiping ceiling of bilge dasto.
2. Thread of length need half as many again as tad.
3. Open toy of batteries shuck. Verification batteries,+,-whereafter stow down to a certainty need locknat lest take place accident.
4. Hook through toys apside of hole.
5. Needs swithes shoving NO.for pre arrows specifying of orention shoving. Pack it up time, withbold toy pate, need switches shoving OFF. The instructions for this Action-man type toy are positively quadruple-Dutch!
Safety(!) notice on a Russian cruise liner.
Helpsaving apparata in emergings behold many whitles! Associate the stringing apparata about the bonsomes and meet behind. Flee then to the indifferent lifesavering shippen obediencing the instructs of the vessel chef. Let's hope it's not called Titanic!
For your dietary pleasure
The METTLER TOLEDO retail scales distinguish themselves by their very solid construction and their optimal conviviality. Presumably they can be programmed to say "Have a nice day".
Hotel howlers
There are no shortage of notices to bring a smile to the face of the weariest of travellers ...
Flattening with pleasure
THE
FLATTENING OF UNDERWEAR WITH PLEASURE IS THE JOB OF THE CHAMBERMAID This Yugoslav
hotel prides itself on its service
Taking liberties with service
YOU ARE INVITED TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF
THE CHAMBERMAID Japanese hotels provide excellent chambermaid service
The oldest profession not welcome here
PLEASE DO NOT BRING SOLICITORS INTO YOUR
ROOM Thai hoteliers certainly know who you can
trust
Who says the Swiss aren't open-minded?
BECAUSE OF THE IMPROPRIETY OF ENTERTAINING
GUESTS OF THE OPPOSITE SEX IN THE BEDROOM, IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THE LOBBY BE USED FOR THIS
PURPOSE In Zurich they certainly prefer to keep things out in the open
Tell it like it is
PLEASE LEAVE YOUR VALUES AT THE
FRONT DESK The Parisians have definitely got it
sussed
Fully-equipped gym?
SWEAT DREAMS This Polish hotel has a surprise in store for its guests
Kinky boots
NOT TO PERAMBULATE THE CORRIDORS IN THE HOURS OF
REPOSE IN THE BOOTS OF ASCENSION A polite notice in an Austrian hotel to its climber guests
Harry Potter eat your heart out
TO MORE THE CABIN, PUSH BUTTON FOR WISHING FLOOR. IF THE CABIN SHOULD ENTER MORE PERSONS, EACH ONE SHOULD PRESS A NUMBER OF WISHING FLOOR. DRIVING IS THEN GOING ALPHABETICALLY BY NATIONAL ORDER. Taking a lift in Belgrade is truly magical
Our small touristic pleasures
Tourist attractions are a perennial source of comic mistranslations
An agency in Czechoslovakia invites us to
TAKE ONE OF OUR HORSE-DRIVEN CITY TOURS. WE GUARANTEE NO MISCARRIAGES Great ante-natal care
In Thailand they advertise donkey rides thus
WOULD YOU LIKE TO RIDE ON YOUR OWN ASS? Neeeeiiiiiiigh
A Majorcan shop offers endearing variations of "English speak here"
ENGLISH WELL TALKING HERE SPEECHING AMERICAN ¿Qué?
A sign beside a Chinese temple invites visitors to
PLEASE TAKE ONE STEP FORWARD AND CRAP TWICE Want the toilet!
The caption under a photo of a local dance in the former USSR says it all
YOUNG MEN'S BALLS IN FULL SWING Swing, swing, swing those balls!
