‘Translation Bloopers’ Archives
Wear Your Clothes
Some mistranslations include correct spelling and grammar, but convey subtle implications only native speakers will notice. Instructions on a Korean flight read, “Upon arrival at Kimpo and Kimahie Airport, please wear your clothes,” perhaps to warn former Braniff passengers who had been told otherwise – “fly naked” – via a rather [...]
Wide Boiled Aircraft
A Russian airline once advertised “wide boiled aircraft for your comfort.” Read more airline-related translation bloopers in the article "'Airline pulp' and bad translations that can crash a plane," by Globalization Group vice president Adam Wooten.
Camay soap in Japan
Procter & Gamble, like many other international corporations, learned U.S. portrayals of women in advertising are not always socially acceptable in other countries. In her book, “Soap Opera: The Inside Story of Procter & Gamble,” author Alecia Swasy relates the result of one misguided soap commercial. “A Camay campaign pitched the [...]
Stir-Fried Wikipedia
When one online machine translation tool apparently mistranslated a common Chinese word as “Wikipedia,” Chinese menus began popping up everywhere with English translations for menu items like “stir-fried Wikipedia" and “barbecued Congo eel with Wikipedia and fermented bean curd.” Read more machine translation blunders in the article [...]
Get Out of Jail Free with Google Mistranslation
In a 2010 legal mishap, “a Russian trucker in (the Netherlands) involved in a bar brawl was released because the (court) summons he received was poorly translated from Dutch into Russian using Google Translate,” reported the Dutch-English news blog 24oranges. Instead of reading, “you are to appear in court on 3 August 2010,” as it [...]
Emergency Air Handcuffs
Emergency exit instructions translated from Spanish to English read, “Handcuff until the it collide and without loosing it pull the hatch.” How comfortable would you feel following those instructions after a crash landing? Read more airline-related translation bloopers in the article "'Airline pulp' and bad translations that can crash a [...]
“Safe” and “Comfortable” Flight
Misuse of punctuation - even small quotation marks - can quickly change the meaning of a sentence. For example, how reassuring is the following invitation from Japan Airlines? Please enjoy our "safe" and "comfortable" flight Read more airline-related translation bloopers in the article "'Airline pulp' and bad translations that can crash a [...]
Airline Pulp
"Southern China Airways once distributed a snack package with the mysterious-sounding label 'Airline Pulp' and no other description. Yum – sounds tasty! This mistranslated label will probably not get the airline nominated for any airline food awards..." Read more airline-related translation bloopers in the article "'Airline pulp' and bad [...]
Basketball Bloopers Lost in Translation
Products and apparel for basketball fans have been the victims of broken English translations. This is not the only sport to see translation blunders - baseball, soccer, and just about every other sport have seen similarly humorous mistranslations - but here are a few from the world of basketball. One UNLV Runnin' Rebels T-shirt (obviously [...]
“Conglaturation” from Nintendo Video Game Localization of Ghostbusters
Like "a winner is you" and "all your base are belong to us," Nintendo's Ghostbusters video game from the 1980s included some interesting broken English, "Conglaturation !!! You have completed a great game. And prooved the justice of our culture. Now go and rest our heroes !" View a video of the NES game's ending here.
