TGIF: Epic translation fail June 15, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff, TGIF.12 comments
I’m glad there are no videos of me teaching German out there. This poor woman…
Have a good weekend, everyone!
Lost in Google Translate: U.S. show’s attempt at Hebrew runs afoul June 14, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.2 comments
It’s a busy day for international translation blooper news.
The Israeli news website Haaretz.com is reporting that the Showtime show “Episodes,” which stars Matt LeBlanc (formerly from “Friends”) featured a Jewish headstone in a recent episode. Apparently the show’s producers used that wonderful, all-knowing, never-failing translation tool Google Translate to write the caption. As the article explains, “In the third episode of the U.S.-British co-production’s second season, one of the scenes takes place in a cemetery, where a headstone is visible and inscribed in both English and what appears to be an attempt at Hebrew, reading “Beloved husband and father, dearly missed. However, the Hebrew text was both written in reverse and badly translated, as blogger Shahar Golan pointed out: “At first the Hebrew words did not make any sense, until I realized the letters were in reverse order: left to right, instead of right to left.”” Apparently they wanted to say ‘he will be dearly missed’ but the literal translation into Hebrew was ‘he was pickled at great expense.‘ Good on Shahar Golan for catching it and writing about it on his blog. Thanks to Rina Ne’eman of Hebrew Language Services for sharing this with us on Facebook!
Translation is even important on the Stock Exchange June 14, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.3 comments
As one of my friends commented on Facebook this morning, “I was wondering how long it would take this Spanish company to realize that their stock wasn’t selling well in America.” This just goes to show you how important having a good translator (or at least someone who is well-versed in both cultures) is. Apparently, Banco Santander, S.A. has announced it is changing its NYSE ticker from STD to SAN effective with commencement of trading this morning. Apparently no investors wanted to buy STDs.
Oops, Tesco forgot to consult a translator… June 12, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.3 comments
Photo from The Daily Mail
Folks at the UK’s largest retailer, Tesco, were embarrassed after an Italian student who is studying in England pointed out that there were numerous offensive phrases in a picture of Italian meats on the packaging of their Italian spaghetti bolognaise. Tesco has since apologized and confirmed the other words innocently describe wild boar, buck, deer and goose meats, but revealed the naughty truth about Coglioni di Mulo and Le Palle de Nonno. Guess they should have asked a native speaker before using the photo. Be sure to read the article for more information (a second article can be read here). Thanks to Robin Bonthrone for sharing the articles.
An interesting new scam (for German speaking folks)… June 8, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Scam alert.7 comments
Seeing as I haven’t had to file a German tax return since 2001 I was unlikely to fall for this one. However, some of you who pay taxes to the German tax authorities may fall for this, so I feel I should write about it. This is most definitely a scam. The IRS and the German Bundeszentralamt für Steuern do not contact tax payers by e-mail – especially if you have never given them your e-mail address…
Sent from: Bundeszentralamt für Steuern (buro@bzst.com)
Datum 07 Juni 2012
Unsere Referenz B/23260/12
Ihr Zeichen 09C/412/12HINWEIS DER STEUERERKLÄRUNG FÜR DAS JAHR 2011
Sehr geehrte Steuerzahler,
Nach den letzten Berechnungen des jährlichen steuerlichen Ihre Tätigkeit haben wir festgestellt, dass Sie Anspruch auf eine Steuererstattung von 233,14 EUR erhalten sollen.
Um Ihre Rücksendung erhalten, füllen Sie bitte das Steuerformular im Anhang zu dieser E-Mail und ermöglichen es uns 3-5 Werktage, um es zu verarbeiten.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
THOMAS BRANDT
Bundeszentralamt für Steuern
Aloha! May 29, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Random musings.5 comments
As predicted, as soon as I go on vacation it seems like my clients realize they need me. The first day I had several requests and am averaging about one a day. I’ve accepted two small jobs that I was easily able to squeeze in at night (including one 6 a.m. phone call this morning), but for the most part I have been sightseeing and getting burnt to a crisp. I guess the solution to being underworked is to go on vacation. I am recharging my batteries and looking forward to starting a new marketing campaign when I get back. I also received a tempting contract job offer, which I am seriously considering applying for.
In the meantime I have spent my days swimming in coves and beaches, hiking to out-of-the-way places and scenic overlooks, and relaxing. I’ve been burned to a crisp, started peeling, and have now reburned the fresh skin under the peeling skin. The first few days were spent on the island of Molokai, a 38 by 10 mile island that is considered to be Old Hawaii. Life there is slow and very, very basic. The highlights for me were the unspoil
ed beauty and the live slack key guitar/ukelele music and hula dancing we enjoyed several times. We flew on a tiny 9-seater plane to Kona on the Big Island on Saturday afternoon (they weigh your luggage and then put you and your carry-ons on the scale to calculate load and balance the plane). We spent the entire day yesterday exploring the west and north coasts of the Big Island (including the breathtaking Hapuna Beach) and had a fabulous meal in a little town called Hawi. Tomorrow night we are doing an evening sunset dinner cruise on a glass bottomed boat to see the marine life and maybe do a little dancing. We head to Hilo on Friday, where I plan to hole up in a posh hotel and enjoy some alone time as well as visit the volcano lava flows and fly over it on a helicopter. Hope you all are having a great week too.
(Almost) Wordless Wednesday May 23, 2012
Posted by Jill (@bonnjill) in Fun stuff.2 comments
I think we’ve all been here…
Musings from an overworked translator 