Chevy Nova awards (lost in translation)

[BobRodes]

The Chevy Nova awards are given out in honor of GM's attempt to market the Nova in Mexico, where of course "no va" means "doesn't go."

The one I remember is the Swedish company Electrolux's attempt at an English slogan "Nothing sucks like an Electrolux."

Something lost in the translation. So I thought it might be fun to start up a thread of stuff that gets lost in translation between two cultures.

Examples abound. (I just looked up a few.) Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela en cuero) in Spanish.

And on it goes...





Bob

 

[pcdude1]

Yes, Mozart was buried in a mass unmarked family grave which was the custom in Vienna during the late 18th century. Family burial plots were leased for ten years. It was normal for graves to be reused. The remains would be dug up and relocated. This was the case with Mozart's grave. It was reused 10 years after his death. In the 1850's, the Vienna city authorities made an attempt to locate Mozart's grave ahead of the centennial of his birth. They made a best guess and placed the tombstone that you can see today. However, one gravedigger claimed to have salvaged Mozart's skull in 1801. The skull changed hands several times and eventually ended up in the hands of the International Mozarteum Foundation in Salzburg. Just a few months ago in October 2004, remains of Mozart's family members were exhumed. DNA tests are being conducted to determine if the skull really belongs to Mozart. The test results are schedule to be released in 2006 ahead of planned celebrations of the 250th anniversay of his birth.

 

[nursegeek]

In case you needed a chuckle...
This morning's news featured one of the channel's anchor's standing outside in the driving snow just as dawn broke. As the camera zoomed in, she introduced the headline, "We're standing in front of this apartment building, where this morning a young man was shot to death several times."
HUH???? Did they resucitate him and shoot him repeatedly????

 

[Dimandja]

>We're standing in front of this apartment building, where this morning a young man was shot to death several times."
HUH????

Well, sure... If at first you think you didn't succeed, shoot, shoot again.

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[mscallisto]

If at first you think you didn't succeed"

Keep on suckin' til you do suckseed

 

[MakeItSo]

Just remembered a story about a translation of Hamlet into Chinese, which (probably for QA reason) was re-translated to English.
"To be, or not to be, that is the question."
turned into
"It is, it isn't, isn't it?"


[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[SkipVought]

My Dad, when her was dating my Mom, whose family had emmigrated from Hungary, wanted to impress her uncle Alexander, who happend to have a wooden leg. He was told that "uncle Alexander" would sound something like "Shander bocci"

He met the uncle and said, "...shunta bocci" upon which time the uncle turned beet red. Apparently he had said lame uncle instead of Uncle Alexander.

He NEVER attempted to speak a word of Hungarian again.

Skip,
[sub]
[red]Be advised:[/red] Researchers have found another Descartes trueism, "Cogito ergo spud."
"I think; therefore, I YAM! [/sub]

 

[CajunCenturion]

SkipVought - You should have a thread exclusively for your signatures.

Good Luck
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[RoyVidar]

It seems when technical information is translated into Norwegian, first one uses a translator whith knowledge within the field. Then one uses, in lack of better words, a Language Consultant, who know the languague it's translated into. Of course the latter category spot a lot of errors made by the translator, for instance (I can't remember what system, OS or software this dealt with, I just remember the translation):

"Fixed Filehandle" -> "Fast filh[å]ndtak" -> "Raskt filh[å]ndtak"

The initial translation is valid, though not in use. The last one translates back to English as "Fast" or "Speedy Filehandle", whatever that is.

Working with databases, most know a little about Relationships. Some, perhaps after a bit of time, also discovers there's someting within database theory referred to as a Relation (table).

Of course both ended up being called "Relasjon" -> "Relation" in Norwegian. So we "just set a relation between relation A and relation B"

Once, in a company where I worked, I was tasked to just throw a "quick glance" at a document describing interfaces between a couple of systems. The idea was to exhange some information with some other companies, where English would be the best language to exchange specifications.

Ever heard of "More Value Treasure Code"? Me neither, I'll give you the name of the field, which was in English, though an acronym [COLOR=white white]VATCD[/color], and the Norwegian word, should someone be interested [COLOR=white white]merverdiavgiftskode[/color]

Roy-Vidar

 

[elanor]

According to Bill Bryson, a translator once had President Carter telling a crowd in Poland that he wanted to know them carnally. Hmmm...

MakeItSo's post reminded me that some translation software once rendered a translation and retranslation of "out of sight, out of mind" as "blind insanity."

Oh well.
Thanks!
Elanor

 

[MakeItSo]

Just came across a rather macabre one:
once again, some advertisement "expert" thought, things sounded sort of special if given an English name.

That's why the supermarket's special offer was not for rucksacks, but for "body bags".

They should have looked up the meaning of "body bag" first, before using it for rucksack...

[blue]An eye for an eye only ends up making the whole world blind. - "Mahatma" Mohandas K. Gandhi[/blue]

 

[GwydionM]

I think President Carter did the equivalent of expressing his deep lust for the Polish people. He also mentioned that he had recently abandoned the USA.

When President Kennedy said he was a Berliner, this sounded as odd as if you declaired yourself a Hamburger or Frankfurter to an English-speaking audience. It was the common name for a type of doughnut.

In Lord Of The Rings, there is a fellow called Farmer Maggot, famous for his mushrooms. So some non-English fans hoasting a banguet desided that their nice mushroom soup should be called Maggot Soup

------------------------------
An old man who lives in the UK

 

[flapeyre]

There's this famous item from a Polish resaurant menu:

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 county peoples' fashion

Yum!

Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni!

 

[AnotherHiggins]

When President Kennedy said he was a Berliner, this sounded as odd as if you declaired yourself a Hamburger or Frankfurter to an English-speaking audience. It was the common name for a type of doughnut.

Not to be a jerk, but I think urban legends should be quashed whenever possible. Maybe I'm a killjoy, but I like the truth.


This was covered in thread1256-822920. (Wow, was that really 10 months ago!?! Time flies.)

This link and this one point out that JFK's "German grammar was flawless" and that "Berliners obviously did not misunderstand JFK. They cheered rather than laughing" as well as the fact that "A Berliner would never call a 'Kreppel' a 'Berliner'. They leave that expression to SouthWestern Germans".

[tt]-John[/tt]
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[LinuxKommy]

I hate to start up this thread again, but if anyone uses SAP, they'll know of its horrible translations.

The one that comes to mind is the german word for "contractor" got translated as "Insignificant employee"... I always tease my contractor friends at work when it comes to our safety record!

 

[BobRodes]

Gotta love that! I'll bask in my insignificance, and send the bill as always...