| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Serious translation blunders in the business world Thread poster: Dan Lucas
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| You're right | Nov 14, 2015 |
Dan Lucas wrote: It's a good example of the absurdities that can result from poor translation. On the other hand "Did you know that silit means anus in a certain Indonesian language?" is probably not a great conversation starter in a business setting.  Regards Dan
My bad, I think I missed the part where you mentioned you were going to show it to your clients.
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englishpartner wrote:
See, now that would mean nothing to me as an English speaker, and I also have this as a brand in my country (I mean silit), but it has a fatal effect in your language. Language is so far reaching, and so few people understand that it's so much more than words :
... sadly, there are a lot of similar cases with foreign brand names here.
| | | | Angela Malik 
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:48
German to English
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| Tu Nova no va | Nov 14, 2015 |
Miguel Carmona wrote: Thank you so much for this valuable reference. I have been sick and tired for years of realizing how many people actually believe the stupid Nova mith. From page 190 posted by Samuel: While no va does indeed mean “no go,” Spanish also has the word nova, which like the English word, comes from the Latin for new. The Spanish nova is spelled as one word, not two, and it is pronounced differently from no va, with the accent on the first syllable, instead of the second… Spanish speakers would not confuse the two… no Spanish speaker would be confused by nova. A published author I had the not very pleasant experience of working with many years ago (she was completely illiterate regarding the Spanish language and translation), was one of the many uninformed people who contributed to disseminating and perpetuating that stupid fake Nova story that some folks who do not know anything about the Spanish language (or probably about Latin or any Romance language) believe so readily without checking basic facts. You sure made my day.
Interestingly, it was a Mexican who first told me of this Nova story. He seemed to believe it to be a translation mistake (or an overlooked thought on the part of Chevy's marketers). Then again, you know the Mexicans love that sort of thing, especially when their friend's Chevy won't start:
"Jajajaja, mira, ese, tu Nova no va! Qué chistoooooooso, güey, jajajaja!"
[Edited at 2015-11-14 18:20 GMT]
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Angela Rimmer wrote: Tu Nova no va
While no va does indeed mean “no go,” Spanish also has the word nova, which like the English word, comes from the Latin for new. The Spanish nova is spelled as one word, not two, and it is pronounced differently from no va, with the accent on the first syllable, instead of the second… Spanish speakers would not confuse the two… no Spanish speaker would be confused by nova.
Interestingly, it was a Mexican who first told me of this Nova story. He seemed to believe it to be a translation mistake (or an overlooked thought on the part of Chevy's marketers). Then again, you know the Mexicans love that sort of thing, especially when their friend's Chevy won't start: "Jajajaja, mira, ese, tu Nova no va! Qué chistoooooooso, güey, jajajaja!"
Yes, I can see a countrymate making fun (using vulgar language_) of that blatant misinterpretation (by some English speakers) of the Spanish word Nova.
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John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 17:48
Member (2008)
French to English
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| Rondelle à pression | Nov 15, 2015 |
I picked up a pressure washer the other day from a local big box store, the kind with an electric pump and nozzle that you wash your car with. Emblazoned on one side of the box was "Pressure Washer" and on the other side "Rondelle à pression" in French. I sent a note to the manufacturer, a large, well-known American brand, to point out that a rondelle is indeed a "washer", but the round kind that you put under the head of a screw, not the kind you wash with!
It even back t... See more I picked up a pressure washer the other day from a local big box store, the kind with an electric pump and nozzle that you wash your car with. Emblazoned on one side of the box was "Pressure Washer" and on the other side "Rondelle à pression" in French. I sent a note to the manufacturer, a large, well-known American brand, to point out that a rondelle is indeed a "washer", but the round kind that you put under the head of a screw, not the kind you wash with!
It even back translates in Google Translate.
They didn't reply. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Daryo
United Kingdom
Local time: 22:48
Serbian to English
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| "Rondelle à pression" | Nov 15, 2015 |
John Fossey wrote:
I picked up a pressure washer the other day from a local big box store, the kind with an electric pump and nozzle that you wash your car with. Emblazoned on one side of the box was "Pressure Washer" and on the other side "Rondelle à pression" in French. I sent a note to the manufacturer, a large, well-known American brand, to point out that a rondelle is indeed a "washer", but the round kind that you put under the head of a screw, not the kind you wash with!
It even back translates in Google Translate.
They didn't reply.
I wouldn't be surprised if your letter landed on the desk of the same character who was boasting to his boss about "finding a much cheaper translation than what we paid last year" and went straight into the wastebasket before anyone else could see it ...
| | | | | Hotel Granada | Nov 15, 2015 |
My late father, who worked and travelled widely in Latin America, used to tell of a Hotel Granada in one of those countries which was not as posh as it wanted to be and was known to the locals as the "Gran Nada" (Big Nothing).
This story may be as apocryphal as the No Va story for all I know.
[Edited at 2015-11-15 16:58 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 23:48
French to English
| medical translation | Nov 15, 2015 |
I'm sorry I don't have any links to give you and I'm just about ready for bed here but wasn't there a case a few years back of patients in Germany who died because doctors were following badly translated instructions for some kind of machine like a scanner, they were using ten times as much of some chemical than necessary because the decimal point got moved over somehow...
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| | | | Neptunia
Local time: 23:48
Italian to English
| mis-translation of Dutch MH17 report | Nov 16, 2015 |
This isn't a business example, unless your business is journalism, but it is certainly serious. I read the first version of this story in the Guardian which implied some of the bodies from the MH17 crash had been extensively tampered with but I couldn't find any other news sources reporting more details. I checked back later and found the edited version had replaced the original version with a note at the end explaining the change:
"• The subheading and text of this article were amended ... See more This isn't a business example, unless your business is journalism, but it is certainly serious. I read the first version of this story in the Guardian which implied some of the bodies from the MH17 crash had been extensively tampered with but I couldn't find any other news sources reporting more details. I checked back later and found the edited version had replaced the original version with a note at the end explaining the change:
"• The subheading and text of this article were amended on 14 October 2015. An earlier version wrongly stated that a “bungled autopsy” had been carried out on the pilot of Malaysian airlines flight MH17. In fact, Dutch forensic scientists carried out the autopsy on the body and removed “foreign objects”. The error was due to a difference in translation between the Dutch and English versions of the Dutch Safety Board’s report into the disaster."
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/oct/13/mh17-report-suggests-efforts-were-made-to-cover-up-causes-of-disaster ▲ Collapse
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