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Translation/Communication BloopersHow would you like your 'headline act' to become a 'woman with big hair'! Oh dear you say, but unfortunately it is true. You can avoid falling into some of these traps by selecting qualified, experienced translators familiar with the two cultures. Ask us how. If you come across a humorous cross-cultural story or mis-translation, we'd love to hear about it. Names on business cards are fraught with problems. So-called 'China experts' are too sometimes! A 'China expert' gave a colleague a Chinese name. It was "essential that my name be remembered by potential business contacts"; the name given potentially could be mistaken for pig, hence very memorable. You can't always trust 'experts' who don't deal with translation and naming issues day in-day out. __________________________________ You won't believe this one! Log in - emerged in Chinese as logging - as in clearing trees. We hope this is a machine translation, it would be incredible to think of such appalling human work! __________________________________ A Guide book for Chinese investors was translated in China and full of absolute clangers: Bridging finance became 'funding for building bridges' It is obvious that the translator had little knowledge of Australian institutions, systems and practices and rendered this book, meant to attract investment, into a blooper case study. __________________________________ In a journal promoting Australian mining and minerals to the Chinese, the very opposite was happening - see below for just one snippet of a mangled Chinese translation: source: But Wilson said there were no new coal basins in Australia's east that were not severely challenged by infrastructure, with the big, established players often dominating and prospective acreage up to 200-600km from the coast. The worrying translation said: But Wilson said, there are no new coal mines in Australia's east, although the east will not be seriously challenged by infrastructure, where big companies are basically 200-600 kms from the coastline. __________________________________ Minister Tim Holding, Minister for Finance, and other portfolios in the Victorian Government was represented in a Chinese publication recently as Minister Tim Holding Company for Victoria. He will now be known as Minister Tim. __________________________________ Computers translated these, see if you can work them out:
__________________________________ 'Nursing home' became 'accommodation house for nurses' in the hands of an interpreter from overseas, unfamiliar with Australian practice. __________________________________
__________________________________ The Odd Spot in the Age Newspaper reported on a translation going very wrong: __________________________________ Another restaurant story. A Briton had been showing off his tattoo for more than a quarter of a century when he found out that it wasn't his name, but 'Coca Cola'. His favourite Chinese restaurant definitely should stick to rice! __________________________________ Kevin Rudd, when he worked as a diplomat, once was asked by Ross Garnaut, then Ambassador to Beijing, to interpret at a meeting. Kevin Rudd himself spoke about a gaffe he made with humour; the opening of the ambassador's remarks mentioned the unprecedented closeness of the relationship (between the two countries). The result - the older officials' faces went white, while the younger ones burst out laughing. What Rudd had said in what he thought was elegant Chinese in fact referred to fantastic simultanous orgasms. I think Kevin Rudd would be the first to acknowledge the need for professional, native speaker interpreters to avoid embarrassment. Chinese, a tonal language, presents many hidden traps for the non-native speaker. __________________________________ The cartoon strip Ginger Meggs is read in many countries. Ginger’s billy cart has “C’mon the Blues” plastered across it; as we know in Australia – this means Carlton Football Club, NSW Blues and any other team with a predominantly navy blue jersey. The Spanish version, however has “Bring on the Miseries”! __________________________________ A business card translated into English had the acronym ASS - Australian Satellite Services as its logo! __________________________________ The following quotes are from a book called Disorder in the Court. These are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court reporters. Pity the poor interpreters, or perhaps things would have been much clearer using interpreters. Q: What is your date of birth? Q: What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? Q: This myasthenia gravis, does it affect your memory at all? Q: How old is your son, the one living with you? Q: What was the first thing your husband said to you when he woke up that morning? Q: Now doctor, isn't it true that when a person dies in his sleep, he doesn't know about it until the next morning? Q: The youngest son, the twenty-year old, how old is he? __________________________________ A cover story in Spectrum (Sydney Morning Herald) from former UN ambassador Richard Butler who quotes from Umberto Eco's book Mouse or Rat: Translation or Negotiation “A hilarious example occurred a few years ago, when a Japanese interpreter translated a formal introduction of the British Permanent Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Head of the Foreign Office) as 'eternal lesser typist'". __________________________________ "You start in October to play in September, and when it's taken away from you by June it's hard to keep getting up" - think about the challenges translating a sentence like this for the Melbourne Football Club. You need more than language skills don't you! The local experience and culture are vital to get the meaning through with the same sense of despair! __________________________________ What about patients in a hospital being referred to as 'deconditioned' - Victorian Government, or 'an act of asymmetrical warfare' referring to the suicide of Guantanamo Bay detainees! Pity the poor translator. When you write your copy, try and use plain language. __________________________________ Cross Cultural Communication Consultancy, Kwintessential’s website: www.kwintessential.co.uk/cross-cultural/training.html contains the following gems:
__________________________________ And risk can be very high in the simplest of texts or utterances such as the one at a Melbourne hospital where an interpreter heard "This operation may cause death" and in their translation of that sentence changed "may" to "will", (fortunately in front of an English speaking relative of the patient who was able to rectify the situation and enable the patient to make a good decision about their treatment). __________________________________ We have all laughed at translations of instructions, labels, etc that find their way into Australia. These can be nonsensical as you will see below; the same can apply to translations from English into Chinese when the underlying English is not understood. We particularly like this one from a company brochure: "Look at our delightful actuality, I can't calm my emotion. Thinking back the past decade, and the splendid undertaking of ours, we also felt the millstone over our shoulders. Facing the un-come-at-able opportunity, the industrialist just like me are taking on the repay the country with our industry. The causation of these achievements owe to the progress of the society and the development of the times, meanwhile, the Development of the enterprise have created fortune for the people and the society. Nowadays, the people of Ruiyun should tone the western exploitation's time and market innovation of China and grasp the pulse of the economy of the world and innovate at every time, we should practice more to strengthen our enterprise, to actualize the new aim of redound upon the people." If you come across a blooper worthy of inclusion, please email it to us.
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