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Off topic: Have you ever seen a translation so bad it made you cringe?
Thread poster: Didi18
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
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there used to be... Sep 17, 2020

expressisverbis wrote:

In Canada, Montreal, there's a restaurant called "Zibo": https://www.restaurantszibo.com/en/restaurant/centre-ville/

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zib

This example is only a localisation issue. I don't consider it a bad translation, but a bad choice.


a coffee bar in New Zealand (can't remember exactly where) called "Pompino"...


expressisverbis
P.L.F. Persio
Didi18
 
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL  Identity Verified
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pic... Sep 17, 2020

sadly, it's closed now...

Pom&Pino


Tom in London
Didi18
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expressisverbis
expressisverbis
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Oh dear me! Sep 17, 2020

Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL wrote:

expressisverbis wrote:

In Canada, Montreal, there's a restaurant called "Zibo": https://www.restaurantszibo.com/en/restaurant/centre-ville/

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zib

This example is only a localisation issue. I don't consider it a bad translation, but a bad choice.


a coffee bar in New Zealand (can't remember exactly where) called "Pompino"...


We need to start a new thread for this!


P.L.F. Persio
Didi18
 
expressisverbis
expressisverbis
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In Portugal: Sep 17, 2020

"Picha" is a village located in Pedrógão Grande, Leiria district. I didn't know it!!

https://en.bab.la/dictionary/portuguese-english/picha


Didi18
Mervyn Henderson (X)
 
Daryo
Daryo
United Kingdom
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? Sep 18, 2020

Chris S wrote:

When I were a lad, my walk to Narrich bus station after school took me past a shop called Knobs and Knockers. I never went in there, but that was only because an eight-year-old rarely needs to purchase door hardware.

It also took me past a Private Shop, which I didn’t go into either, seeing as it wasn’t open to the public. But I did go into WHSmith and nick something pretty much daily.


"I did go into WHSmith and nick something pretty much daily"?

I guess it's by now long past any Statute of limitations ... so nothing to worry about?


 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
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Crime and punishment Sep 19, 2020

Daryo wrote:
I guess it's by now long past any Statute of limitations ... so nothing to worry about?


When my mother discovered a near-complete collection of Famous Fives* under my bed, I had to do the walk of shame...

*Yes, really. I was only nine.


Mervyn Henderson (X)
P.L.F. Persio
 
Mervyn Henderson (X)
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Famous Fives Sep 20, 2020

I never nicked any, Chris, but I kept them under my bed too. Discretion, you see. My parents would have been shocked to "find out" (that's a pun, by the way, albeit a little cryptic) I was avidly reading about a girl called George. Those were not liberal times. And then there was that dog Timmy. Hm. And what about Uncle Quentin, always cooped up all stern in his lab on Kirrin Island? What was he doing there all secretive like that? Cooking up roofies? Coke? Meth? Or something infinitely more sin... See more
I never nicked any, Chris, but I kept them under my bed too. Discretion, you see. My parents would have been shocked to "find out" (that's a pun, by the way, albeit a little cryptic) I was avidly reading about a girl called George. Those were not liberal times. And then there was that dog Timmy. Hm. And what about Uncle Quentin, always cooped up all stern in his lab on Kirrin Island? What was he doing there all secretive like that? Cooking up roofies? Coke? Meth? Or something infinitely more sinister? Maybe the Five Find-Outers (see?) should have concentrated on him instead.

On the subject of literature, fives and beds, it was a little later than the age of nine that I discovered the forbidden but delicious joys of Madam Palm and her Five Sisters under the sheets. Like all young men down through the ages. Walk of shame, you say? You transpose that L for another letter just a teensy bit further on in the alphabet, and there you have it.

[Edited at 2020-09-20 06:58 GMT]

[Edited at 2020-09-20 07:44 GMT]
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P.L.F. Persio
Christopher Schröder
 
Christopher Schröder
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😱 Sep 20, 2020

That all feels a bit close to the bone...

Mervyn Henderson (X)
P.L.F. Persio
 
JH Trads
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The farm Sep 21, 2020

I was watching a French movie in a South American country, in a movie theater. Two characters were arguing, and one said to the other "la ferme !", which, in that context meant "ferme-la! (la bouche/gueule)", i.e., "shut up!" but the subtitle read "la granja!", that is to say "the farm!" ["ferme" in French as a noun means "farm"].
But this humongous mistranslation did not actually make me cringe, it amused me!


Didi18
expressisverbis
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Didi18
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Oh, yeah. Subtitles. *Sigh* Sep 21, 2020

JH Trads wrote:

I was watching a French movie in a South American country, in a movie theater. Two characters were arguing, and one said to the other "la ferme !", which, in that context meant "ferme-la! (la bouche/gueule)", i.e., "shut up!" but the subtitle read "la granja!", that is to say "the farm!" ["ferme" in French as a noun means "farm"].
But this humongous mistranslation did not actually make me cringe, it amused me!


That's funny! I wonder how many people kept scratching their heads wondering why on Earth that character would scream "the farm!".

And also, how many people thought everything was fine with that translation ...

One mistranslation I've seen more than once is "Poison" (Poison) instead of "Fish" (Poisson), and once long ago Pepper (poivre) translated as Poor (pauvre). It was in Portuguese, "Pobre". Poivre was translated as Pobre.


expressisverbis
P.L.F. Persio
 
Didi18
Didi18
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Localization is a BIG issue Sep 21, 2020

expressisverbis wrote:

Tom in London wrote:

Near where I used to live in Florence, an enterprising young fellow decided to open a bar selling coffee, drinks, and snacks, and to make it more exciting he decided to call it something English (Italians are impressed by things in English).

Over several days I saw him up a ladder, painting the new sign above his shop. Then one day it was finished. It read

SNATCH BAR

I never went in there.



[Edited at 2020-09-14 15:21 GMT]


In Canada, Montreal, there's a restaurant called "Zibo": https://www.restaurantszibo.com/en/restaurant/centre-ville/

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=zib

This example is only a localisation issue. I don't consider it a bad translation, but a bad choice.


In Dallas, Texas, there was an Italian restaurant called "Eccola". Problem was that people were pronouncing the name as "E. Coli" (escherichia coli). Didn't last long.


expressisverbis
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Mervyn Henderson (X)
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Dog and bone rings a bell Sep 21, 2020

Nice one, Chris!! As you'll remember, George and the rest generally picnicked on potted meat washed down with ginger beer, but when my parents got wind of stories about teenage ladyboys drinking beer and giving the dog a bone afterwards, it only added fuel to the flames, so they took away my Enid Blytons and gave me a load of Reader's Digests to read instead.

Sorry, it's been several pages now, and I realise it's way off topic, even for off-topic.



[Edited at 20
... See more
Nice one, Chris!! As you'll remember, George and the rest generally picnicked on potted meat washed down with ginger beer, but when my parents got wind of stories about teenage ladyboys drinking beer and giving the dog a bone afterwards, it only added fuel to the flames, so they took away my Enid Blytons and gave me a load of Reader's Digests to read instead.

Sorry, it's been several pages now, and I realise it's way off topic, even for off-topic.



[Edited at 2020-09-21 10:55 GMT]
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expressisverbis
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"Super Bock" Sep 21, 2020



In Dallas, Texas, there was an Italian restaurant called "Eccola". Problem was that people were pronouncing the name as "E. Coli" (escherichia coli). Didn't last long.


This Portuguese brand beer would have serious problems in selling in a certain country.
It seems "Bok" in Turkish means "merda". Who wants do drink a beer called "Super Shit"?
I really don't know if it is marketed there or not.


[Edited at 2020-09-21 11:27 GMT]


Mervyn Henderson (X)
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
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On topic Sep 23, 2020

On topic for the first time on this thread in my case (soz):

Bad menu translations and dodgy product names just make me chuckle. What makes me despair is the moronicity often shown by professional translators on KudoZ.

The blind leading the blind over a cliff. The blind questioning and overruling the sighted. The polyglots with a smattering of 73 languages but a mastery of none. The undoubted subject experts with all the target terms but only the vaguest comprehension
... See more
On topic for the first time on this thread in my case (soz):

Bad menu translations and dodgy product names just make me chuckle. What makes me despair is the moronicity often shown by professional translators on KudoZ.

The blind leading the blind over a cliff. The blind questioning and overruling the sighted. The polyglots with a smattering of 73 languages but a mastery of none. The undoubted subject experts with all the target terms but only the vaguest comprehension of the source. The smiley brigade, the literalists and the dictionary quoters. The scattergun point-hunters, the aggressively infallible and the full-blown random nutters.

Every time a bad translation is accepted for the world to see, I cringe.

Which is why I don’t go by my full name here.

[Edited at 2020-09-23 16:50 GMT]
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Michele Fauble
expressisverbis
Mervyn Henderson (X)
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Barbara Carrara
Anton Konashenok
 
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Smiley brigade Sep 23, 2020

There's one for the archives!!

 
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