Professional Translation

[ManedWolf]

I noticed that there is a Finnish language www.stabilo.fi website. The Stabilo CarbOthello pastel pencils have a very extraordinary property: The stars (from 0 to 5) indicate how well the colour adheres to the paper. What the *beep*? Aw, yes. The confirmedly professional translator didn't understand the word light-fastness and translated only the fastness! Oh *beeeep*. I could have done it better (brochures usually have to be rewritten rather than translated), for a smaller fee.

And this isn't the first time. The Finnish manual of Microsoft Train Simulator includes an admirable amount of wrong special terms. Some model railway brochures make sense only when you translate them back to German! And there was a time, about ten years ago, when the Finnish importer of Derwent did not know that there was a 40-odd page, A4-size full colour brochure in Finnish! (I wouldn't have known, if I hadn't sent a letter asking if there was some kind of catalog - and getting one in English and one in Finnish.) And there has been, about the same time, a similar brochure of Stabilo in Finnish; as far as I know it was printed in two (2) exemplars of which I finally got one. Nobody knows where the rest are.

No wonder the Derwent Signatures and Stabilo Softcolors died. If you don't advertize, there can be no customers - right?

Heikki (translator of "The Tough Guys" of Mickey Spillane, "C Is for Corpse" and "D Is for Deadbeat" by Sue Grafton and "Daughter of the Red Deer" by Joan Wolf)

[Bringer]

Now I know, but a couple of years ago I'd look at my cell phone and think: "What the heck is this Suomi language ?"

José :-)

[Diane Cutter]

That's pretty funny... and sad. I am bilingual and have seen some pretty funny stuff going on between English and Spanish. I think someone was using a translating 'bot' and didn't understand the nuances.

Diane

[La_]

ahh, to have a 'babble fish' would be grand!
(hitchhikers guide to the galaxy)

i found this on the net recently, thought it relevant to share ...
(image wouldn't upload)

on a remote control helicopter blade it says:

WARNING! If blade damage. don't be fly. otherwise it will create
the human body or blame damage.

la

[ManedWolf]

In fact I sent an e-mail to Stabilo about the error and the Finnish importer said that they had the page translated by a professional firm. I dare not think how much they paid for it.

Heikki

[Colorix]

Should have had a professional artist to check it...

Those translations can be really hilarious when they've used Google Translate...

[bookscorpion]

This is the reason why I refuse to read translated books, at least from authors who write in English (unfortunately, the only language I speak other than German). There are just way too many translators today who seem to have no knowledge of figures of speech (I've seen 'cool as a cucumber' translated word for word) or who cannot use a dictionary.

And don't get me started on dubbed movies.