A good translation means hard work, lots of experience and a good knowledge of the translation's subject.
There is now a tool -Machine Translation Detector - to detect whether machine translation has been used, which might be useful before bidding on a job.
Sunday 23 October 2011
Funny Translations - I
On a Bulgarian web site:
You may visit this webpage, only if you are logged in or it is unavailable.
In a Tokyo Hotel:
Is forbidden to steal hotel towels please. If you are not a person to do such thing is please not to read notis.
In a Leipzig elevator:
Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
In a Belgrade hotel elevator:
To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
In a hotel in Athens:
Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 a.m. daily.
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a Yugoslavian hotel:
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
In a Japanese hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursdays.
In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers:
Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.
On the menu of a Polish hotel:
Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Bangkok dry cleaner's:
Drop your trousers here for best results.
Outside a Paris dress shop:
Dresses for street walking.
In a Rhodes tailor shop:
Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
From the Soviet Weekly:
There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.
In a Zurich hotel:
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
Teeth extracted by the latest Methodists.
In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:
Take one of our horse-driven city tours - we guarantee no miscarriages.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand:
Would you like to ride on your own ass?
In a Bangkok temple:
It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
In a Tokyo bar:
Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
In a Budapest zoo:
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In the office of a Rome doctor:
Specialist in women and other diseases.
In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
In a Tokyo shop:
Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run.
In a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
In a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
- English well talking.
- Here speeching American.
On a Malaga freeway:
Locals for sale or rent.
In an East African newspaper:
A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers.
In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:
Take one of our horse-driven city tours. We guarantee no miscarriages.
Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan:
Stop: Drive Sideways.
Funny Translations -Introduction
There's the story about the computer designed to translate between Russian and English. The English phrase "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" was submitted and then the Russian translation of that was re-submitted for conversion back to English. The result: "The wine is good but the meat is rotten."
Why Hitler hated being called a Nazi and what's really in humble pie – origins of words and phrases revealed
From Nazis and film buffs to heckling and humble pie, the obscure origins of commonly-used words and phrases are explained in a new etymological guide.
Have you ever wondered why we pass the buck, eat humble pie or let the cat out of the bag?
The English language is rich in idioms and expressions which have evolved in meaning over the centuries, often arising from trades or customs which have long disappeared.
The origins of hundreds of everyday words and phrases have been set out in a new guide.
Its compiler, Mark Forsyth, has traced them through books and writings, some back as far as Ancient Greece.
Called The Etymologicon, the guide studies the influx of words into English, particularly at times of social change and conflict.
Mr Forsyth, a writer and etymologist, said: "What I love about etymology is not the grand theories but the strange back alleys and extraordinary and ridiculous journeys that words take."
Much of his research was carried out in the British Library, following references through a succession of dictionaries back, as far as possible, to their original sources. There are competing theories about the origins of some phrases, but he has selected those which are supported by the most evidence.
Sir Winston Churchill emerges as a prolific source of words, credited with inventing, among others, the terms out-tray, social security and seaplane.
The book also describes how "hello" was popularised by the advent of the telephone. Until then, it had been an obscure greeting, with people mostly using good morning, good day and good night.
Alexander Bell, credited with inventing the telephone, had favoured the nautical "ahoy" as a short, standard salutation, but it did not catch on.
The research also shows that many words entered the language from India during the days of empire, including shampoo, bungalow, juggernaut and pundit.
From The Etymologicon:
Cold shoulder – cold shoulder of mutton was the sort of leftovers given to unwelcome house guests
Winging it – actor learning lines in the wings
To heckle – originally the process of removing knots from wool, by combing. In eighteenth century Dundee, workers who carried out the task, hecklers, were political radicals and would interrupt their colleague responsible for reading out the daily news.
Bite the dust – a direct translation of a quote from The Iliad in which a character talks of the death of Hector
Humble pie – a meal made using the "umbles" – innards – of deer and only eaten by the lowliest servants
Pavilion – from the French for butterfly, papillons, which was the name given to the tents erected at medieval tournaments and jousts, because they resembled the insect's wings
Film buff – from buffalo, the leather from which was worn by 19th century New York firemen who attracted crowds of fans when putting out fires. These aficionados became known as buffs, and the use spread to other experts
Pidgin English – from the pronunciation of "business" by Chinese traders encountered by British merchants in the 19th century
Rolling stone – a seventeenth century gardening implement – similar to a modern roller – used to flatten lawns. The proverb about it gathering no moss, which inspired Sir Mick Jagger and other musicians who used it in their lyrics, gave the phrase a more dynamic image than its prosaic origin suggests
Nazi – an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged. Opponents seized on this and shortened the party's title Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei, to the dismissive "Nazi"
Let the cat out of the bag – In medieval markets, piglets were sold in bags – a pig in a poke – but a common con was to switch the valuable animal for a worthless cat or dog: buyers were either sold a pup, or, if they discovered the ruse, let the cat out of the bag
The proof of the pudding – from an older meaning of "proof", meaning "test"
Champion – from the Latin for field, campus. The best soldiers in the field were called campiones, hence champions
In the doghouse – from Peter Pan. In JM Barrie's 1911 novel, Mr Darling forces the dog to sleep in the kennel, and as a result the children disappear. As penance, he takes to sleeping there himself.
Through the grapevine – from the "grapevine telegraph", a phrase which emerged during the US Civil War, for an unofficial, word of mouth network along which news was passed, either because Confederate soldiers passed it on while drinking wine after dinner, or because slaves discussed it while picking grapes from vines.
Hoax – from hocus-pocus, which was used by Protestants to ridicule the rite of consecration carried out in the course of Catholic mass, which includes the phrase "Hoc est corpus meum" ("This is my body")
Average – from an old French term avarie, meaning "damage done to a ship". Vessels were often co-owned and when repairs were carried out, owners were expected to pay an equal share – the average.
Castor oil – originally the name of a liquid used as a laxative which was extracted from the glands of a beaver – or Castor, in Latin. It was not until the mid-eighteenth century that it was discovered that the same effect could be got from the oil produced by the seeds of Ricinus communis, which became known as the castor oil plant.
Bizarre – from the Basque word for beard, bizar, because when bearded Spanish soldiers arrived in remote Pyrenean villages, locals thought them odd.
Serendipity – word coined in 1754 by Horace Walpole, son of the first prime minister, after reading a book about the island of Serendip – now known as Sri Lanka
Sardonic – referred to those from Sardinia who, in ancient times, were characterised as unfriendly. The Mediterranean island also gave its name to sardines, which were found in its waters
Dog days – the name for the hottest, sultriest part of the summer which coincides with a period, during July, when Sirius – the dog star – cannot be seen as it rises and sets at the same time as the sun.
Pass the buck – from the horn of a deer (buck), which was commonly used as a knife handle. The phrase emerged in nineteenth century America, from when poker players would signify the dealer for each game by stabbing a knife into the table in front of him
Shell out – from the awkward process of getting a nut out of its shell. Artillery shells are so described because early grenades looked like nuts in their shells.
In a nutshell – Pliny, the Roman writer, claimed there was a copy of The Iliad so small it could fit inside a walnut shell
Grocer – one who buys in gross
Kiosk – Turkish word for palace, which gradually becomes less grand as its use as it moves westward across Europe. In Italy it refers to a pagoda-like garden structure
Bigot – old English for "by god", to describe someone who asserts their own saintliness, while being a hypocrite
Upshot – the decisive, final shot in an archery contest which decided who had won
 |
| Nazi - an insult in use long before the rise of Adolf Hitler's party. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged |
From The Telegraph
The Full English
The mother tongue you thought you knew like the back of your hand turns out to be a horse of a different colour.
 |
| Sir James Murray, first editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, faced a monumental task |
English is a right old mishmash of languages, a hotchpotch that has absorbed influences piecemeal from the four corners of the earth and across all the seven seas. The upshot is that our lingo, this stuff from which we spin our yarns and crack our gags, what we use to chew the fat and have a chinwag, has become a hotbed of verbal oddities.
These quirky turns of phrase – more than you can shake a stick at – are second nature to us and we use them willy-nilly, at the drop of a hat. But the lion’s share of these common or garden sayings, which we think are plain as a pikestaff, are actually, if you use your noggin, quite quizzical conundrums, and some of them, when they show their true colours, appear perfectly potty. Get down to the nitty-gritty, and the mother tongue that you thought you knew like the back of your hand turns out to be a horse of quite a different colour – more like double Dutch.
Kudos should go to Mark Forsyth, then, author of The Etymologicon, who has tried to sort out this linguistic mare’s nest and help us see the wood for the trees. Clearly a man who knows his onions, Mr Forsyth must have worked 19 to the dozen, spotting red herrings and unravelling inkhorn terms, to bestow this boon – a work of the first water, to coin a phrase.
From The Telegraph
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