Tuesday, June 03, 2008

More Humor

I am a fan of bad translations – not in a professional sense, of course, but just because I find them amusing. This funny website is primarily for those who know Swedish, but there is a section that can be read by everyone (at least the bad translations can; the commentary can not be). Click “äldre inlägg” at the end of each page to get to the next one.

2 comments:

Eric Dickens said...

Well, I gave a few positive "betyg" (points) for the funnier ones. This should be a lesson to all beginners to never think they can do a quick translation of a notice or advert, if their language level means they simply look up every word in a dictionary and string them together.

But there are, alas, people under pressure to do just that to save their stingy employer a little money.

B.J. Epstein said...

Absolutely, Eric. I'm sure some of the bad ones were done by people don't know even what a professional translation is (i.e. employees of whatever company it is who happen to know some English and are told to make a version of the slogan in English). Sad to know that some companies won't (or don't know to) spend the money on a good translator.

Best wishes,
BJ