| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > | Off topic: What is the funniest mistake you have come across when proofreading? Thread poster: Paul Dixon
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LM
Local time: 14:03
English to Polish
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| From a newspaper? | Nov 21, 2008 |
Maybe it's only an "urban legend" but I heard of
a newspaper title:
El culo de la Virjen es muy popular en Brasil.
ass instead of cult
LM
| | | | | Reliving the trauma... | Nov 21, 2008 |
Proofreading a math software, I found a puzzling function that calculated the "Absolute Deviation of the Stocking". Utterly intrigued and bewildered, I checked the source text to find the original "Desviación Absoluta de la Media" (or, as purist would have it, the "Mean Absolute Deviation").
The same text revealed later on hidden gems such as email "reshipment" (for "reenviar", i.e., "forward") and "leaf's border" (for "sheet border"). The horror! The horror!
| | | | Andrea Riffo 
Chile
Local time: 08:03
English to Spanish
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Óscar's "beaten to a pulp" / "te golpeará con un pulpo" story (over which I'm still giggling, btw) reminded me of something I saw in a TV show:
English: "If they let this guy go, it'll be a travesty"
Traducción al español: "si lo dejan ir, me haré travesti" ("If they let this guy go, I'll become a transvestite").
It still doesn't beat the pulp --> pulpo --> octupus story, though ... See more Óscar's "beaten to a pulp" / "te golpeará con un pulpo" story (over which I'm still giggling, btw) reminded me of something I saw in a TV show:
English: "If they let this guy go, it'll be a travesty"
Traducción al español: "si lo dejan ir, me haré travesti" ("If they let this guy go, I'll become a transvestite").
It still doesn't beat the pulp --> pulpo --> octupus story, though
Andrea ▲ Collapse
| | | | | More breasts | Nov 22, 2008 |
At the end of the 80s one of my German teachers asked us to write an essay about the environment and what could be done to save it. As you may be aware, German has various plural endings and I sometimes got them muddled up. I suggested in my essay that public transport facilities should be improved (they really were - and still are - atrocious in Gloucestershire). However, each time I wanted to suggest, for example, that there should be more buses, more reliable buses, etc., I used the wrong plu... See more At the end of the 80s one of my German teachers asked us to write an essay about the environment and what could be done to save it. As you may be aware, German has various plural endings and I sometimes got them muddled up. I suggested in my essay that public transport facilities should be improved (they really were - and still are - atrocious in Gloucestershire). However, each time I wanted to suggest, for example, that there should be more buses, more reliable buses, etc., I used the wrong plural ending, turing "Bus" into "Busen" (breasts). My poor teacher apparently couldn't stop laughing and was actually in tears when he presented me with the corrected version.
Just realised that wasn't actually a translation mistake. Hope nobody minds!
[Edited at 2008-11-22 11:52 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| Just caught this one in time, could have been very embrassing | Nov 22, 2008 |
Just found this when proofreading my current project - a pharmaceutical batch record (the starting materials and products are narcotics)
For general information on dealing with narcotics, see Standard Operating Procedure XXX
dealing -> handling (don't want the workforce to start earning on the side!)
| | | | | And even more breasts. | Nov 22, 2008 |
A friend of mine, who is still learning Spanish, submitted a prayer request for the church bulletin regarding a member who has breast cancer:
Orar por XX quien tiene cancer de la pechuga.
Among other errors, he appears to be concerned that XX is eating diseased chicken.
human breast --> pecho, seno, mama
fowl (careful! not "foul"!) breast --> pechuga
Understandable error; he learned the word at the local fried-chicken restaurant.
Simon Mountifield wrote:
A few months ago, an agency (that I regularly work for) asked me to translate some menus for a high-end Parisian restaurant. Realising that I was rather busy and fairly confident of their English skills, they thought they would translate the "easy" bits to save me time!!
Well, the restaurant had decided to give each of its set menus the name of a bird, so there were things like "The Sparrow Menu", "The Eagle Menu", and so on. That's all very well, until the agency had a stab at translating the mésange menu. A mésange is a (blue)tit… you can probably see where this is going! As you can imagine, I creased up when I saw "The Tits Menu". I dare say such a menu exists if you go to certain seedy tourist resorts, but not some swanky Parisian restaurant!
Simon
Please, Simon, tell me that they renamed that menu entirely! There's nothing you can do with "tit." Even Blue Tit doesn't help a bit! I grew up with birdwatcher parents talking about a "Tufted Titmouse," and even I would have trouble, er... swallowing that menu.
| | | | Sara Senft
United States
Local time: 08:03
Spanish to English
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| More fun with body parts! | Nov 22, 2008 |
I also tutor ESL (English as a Second Language) children in basic English-language academic skills. While I was evaluating the English level of one student (who was very new to English), one question had her identify a pencil. She ended up calling it a body part that women don't have.
| | | | Dina Abdo
Palestine
Local time: 15:03
Member (2005)
Arabic
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| Let's see... | Nov 22, 2008 |
This might be somewhat hard to understand for non-Arabic language speakers, but I'll try my best:
I asked some of my students to attempt translating several short texts providing two different versions:
1. Literal translation
2. Proper translation
Just to teach them the difference of the results. However, I ended up with some funny results:
"Mr. Mubarak" (A male name which is an Arabic name that means "the blessed one", while the phrase i... See more
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| This was wonderful and comic: | Nov 22, 2008 |
"mozzarella di Buffalo" instead of "mozzarella di bufala", for "buffalo mozzarella".
Ops... I did not know that a special mozzarella is produced in Buffalo...
It made me smile)))))
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I was proofreading a text about football and I came across Servette Football Club, which is a club in Geneva. The person - who had no idea about football during 30,000 words - translated: "La Serviette de Genève" (Geneva Towel). That actually made me laugh out loud even though I was proofreading it in the middle of the night.
| | | | | A Swedish company that didn't hire a proofreader... | Nov 27, 2008 |
This was actually a bilingual sign outside a factory in Sweden:
Where it should have said
"Arrival Goods"
it became
"Arrival Gods"
Unless this wasn't a mistake of course...
| | | | Karen Stokes
United Kingdom
Local time: 13:03
Member (2003)
French to English
| A translation "howler"? | Nov 27, 2008 |
I once "proofread" a menu featuring a fine range of fish dishes including a "pavé de loup" (bass) translated as a "thick wolf roast".
I must say we've always found nice intelligent wolves to be much tastier...
Best,
Karen
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Juan Jacob
Mexico
Local time: 06:03
French to Spanish
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Made in Turkey, in French, became: Fabriqué en Dinde.
Very funny.
| | | | NancyLynn
Canada
Local time: 08:03
Member (2002)
French to English
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Moderator of this forum
My turkey experience was a sign at a college cafeteria: Turkey Sandwich; Sandwich de Turquie.
Nancy
[Edited at 2008-11-27 21:45 GMT]
| | | | | The worst is yet to come | Nov 27, 2008 |
Juan Jacob wrote:
Made in Turkey, in French, became: Fabriqué en Dinde.
Very funny.
In Portuguese (Brazilian - accents omitted on account of some systems):
Turkey (the country) = Turquia
turkey (the bird) = peru
Peru (the country) = Peru
peru (teens' slang) = the male sexual organ
(something/someone is...) do peru! (slang) = very good, very bad, or very inconvenient - depending on context
The female (bird), "perua" has its troubles too.
It may mean the bird itself, but also a station-wagon, a van, VW Kombi, etc.
However in slang it may mean a bizarrely overdressed-for-the-occasion woman, with excessive make-up, flamboyant.
Invent your jokes!
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