| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] | Off topic: Have you ever seen a translation so bad it made you cringe? Thread poster: Didi18
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P.L.F. Persio 
Netherlands
Local time: 21:46
Member (2010)
English to Italian
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| How about that ... | Nov 28, 2020 |
In the Piedmontese dialect (Northern Italy), piciu (read as pichu) means exactly the same thing, while the feminine picia is a a much ruder word meaning prostitute.
[Edited at 2020-11-28 14:25 GMT]
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 20:46
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Languages are amazing | Nov 28, 2020 |
P.L.F.Persio wrote: In the Piedmontese dialect (Northern Italy), piciu (read as pichu) means exactly the same thing, while the feminine picia is a a much ruder word meaning prostitute. [Edited at 2020-11-28 14:25 GMT]
It's amazing to see their similarities!
| | | | | I hope not an Italian restaurant | Nov 28, 2020 |
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote: sadly, it's closed now... 
 
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 20:46
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| A good example of language similarities: | Nov 29, 2020 |
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Didi18
United States
Local time: 12:46
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Picha, piciu, picia, et all: In some Spanish-speaking countries, pichi (pronounced pitchi) means #1 | Nov 29, 2020 |
In some Spanish-speaking countries, "pichi" (pronounced pitchi in English or pici in Italian) means bodily function number 1.
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 20:46
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| I can be zapped for this... | Nov 30, 2020 |
Didi18 wrote:
In some Spanish-speaking countries, "pichi" (pronounced pitchi in English or pici in Italian) means bodily function number 1.
...and "piça" in EU Portuguese in the sense of "picha".
| | | | expressisverbis
Portugal
Local time: 20:46
Member (2015)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
While translating a user manual, I came across this:
"Do not abuse the Power Cord."
Please do not be violent to the poor power cord. Do not use physical or verbal maltreatment against it, especially when it's not working properly!
Power cords can be very touchy.
| | | | JH Trads
United States
Local time: 15:46
Member (2007)
English to French
+ ...
| revolting error | Dec 19, 2020 |
I just saw a movie where folks were singing in a Spanish-speaking country a revolutionary song, along the lines of "El pueblo, unido, jamás será vencido", where 'pueblo' means the people, the masses, the population rising up in a revolution, etc., but the subtitle read:
"The village, united, ..." Ouch! 'Village' is one of the several meanings of the word 'pueblo', but definitely not the right one here!
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Felipe Lacerda
Brazil
Local time: 16:46
Member (2011)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| All the time. | Dec 20, 2020 |
Last year I received a review assignement for a technical project on safety measures when working with a certain machine. Nothing too complicated, really.
So I open the file and my eyes start bleeding as the translator managed to:
- translate "pinch point" as "connection point". Seriously, even if you don't work with technical stuff, just Google Image "pinch point" and ask yourself "could that yellow warning mean connection?". If your answer is yes, your parents were cousins.<... See more Last year I received a review assignement for a technical project on safety measures when working with a certain machine. Nothing too complicated, really.
So I open the file and my eyes start bleeding as the translator managed to:
- translate "pinch point" as "connection point". Seriously, even if you don't work with technical stuff, just Google Image "pinch point" and ask yourself "could that yellow warning mean connection?". If your answer is yes, your parents were cousins.
- translate "e-stop" as "electronic stop". Oh, yes, that's certainly a stop you use from the Internet in case you forget your Facebook page open and your better half comes home early and starts reading all your dirty stuff with other people. Right?
And a bunch of other disgrafecul mistranslations.
So I fixed everything. Wrote a long message to the PM explaining that this was serious - just imagine if this is printed, a worker places his hand in a pinch point and loses his fingers?
I could bet my house that absolutely nothing happened in terms of penalties. Hey, after all, the reviewer should fix everything, even if it Google translate level or, worse, this level. Am I right?
Later on I found out who translated that piece of crap - her name is P.B. and she has 48 (effing forty eight) reviews here on ProZ. Yup.
*Eloquent silence* ▲ Collapse
| | | | WS McCallum
New Zealand
Local time: 07:46
French to English
There have been many over the years, but the one that really stands out was the sign in a B&B in Ticino, run by a nice old couple. The sign up inside the door of my room stating the house rules, fire safety procedures etc. was in four languages (Italian, French, German, and English), and there were mistakes in all four texts.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 21:46
French to English
Felipe Lacerda wrote:
Hey, after all, the reviewer should fix everything, even if it Google translate level or, worse, this level. Am I right?
Hmm you've just reminded me of one of the worst translations I've ever seen.
It was the first week of the year, you know, when the good translators finally get back to work after some well-earned partying over party season.
During my absence (due to being a good translator who had partied during party season), the PM on duty had had to scrape the barrel rather a lot looking for available translators.
One client was furious and accused her of using GT. They had a in-house native English speaker re-do the translation even though it wasn't their department at all. So the PM asked me to look at the work and find a way to prove that it wasn't GT but a human.
It was the simplest of letters, along the lines of "please find enclosed our new catalogue brimming with exciting new ways of wasting the money that you no longer have because you spent it partying". Yet the translator had done a truly shoddy job. I told the PM that it was abundantly clear that it was a human, simply because, for all its faults, GT doesn't make that many spelling mistakes.
| | | | JH Trads
United States
Local time: 15:46
Member (2007)
English to French
+ ...
| ¡Qué mole tan maravilloso! | Dec 28, 2020 |
'Mole' (masculine noun) is a Mexican food, but in this movie, where a couple was commenting on the food, the subtitle for
¡Qué mole tan maravilloso!
was:
'What a wonderful morning!'
I had to rewind and double-check I had read 'correctly', I could not believe it.
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JH Trads
United States
Local time: 15:46
Member (2007)
English to French
+ ...
| Keep Good Records and Save Your Receipts | Jan 10, 2021 |
Keep good records and save your receipts > Tenga buenos antecedentes y ahorre con sus comprobantes
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 14:46
English to Russian
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| Oh, but of course | Jan 11, 2021 |
Just looked at the sentence of my own yesterday's creation. At the moment, I'm desperately trying to figure out who broke into my place the night before, and what exactly did h/s slip in my morning coffee.
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