Lost in translation (was: How do Dredgers work?)

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 11:11 am

Moderator: split from How do Dredgers work?

Eric Walch wrote:
As street writes.

I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

Screet · Post by **Screet** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 12:07 pm

Commander McLane wrote:
Eric Walch wrote:
As street writes.
I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

Oh, I'd only put a trumble over the flames in such a case, but won't do so with any people

I know all those problems with automatic correction systems, t9 dictionaries and such. Even the human brain has similar "features" which lead to such problems. I still can laugh at the memory of this nice woman when she sent me a SMS and T9 changed both her and my name always to the same (third) name

Screet

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 2:02 pm

Commander McLane wrote:
I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

Word on the street is, those things can get quite unpleasant.

Post by **Eric Walch** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:50 pm

Commander McLane wrote:
Eric Walch wrote:
As street writes.
I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?

Also bad translations can start a war....

A general mistake a Dutch person can make when he politely want to say to its German guest: "take a seat", but tries to do that in his best german: "Platzen Sie !" (This means in reality something like: do explode !)

And I remember the occasion we has dinner in a Dutch restaurant with a German guest at our table. When the waiter brought the desert for him. It was an ice-cream with chocolate sauce what on the menu was written as "Dame Blance", the waiter wanted to show he new a bit of German: "Hier ist Ihrer blanke Dame". Our guest was very confused (In German it mend something like "nude woman", but it was not the kind of establishment that would have had those available. And his wife was with him

)

Frame · Post by **Frame** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 5:55 pm

I guess the waiter was more street wise after that

..

sorry couldn't resist..

Tivva · Post by **Tivva** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:40 pm

Ahruman wrote:
Commander McLane wrote:
I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?
Word on the street is, those things can get quite unpleasant.

Now that would have been funnier if you'd have typed
"the word on the sCreet is..."

ok door, coat...

CheeseRedux · Post by **CheeseRedux** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 6:40 pm

My all-time favourite is from the menu at Hotel el Parador in Panama City:
Some dish (or drink, I forget - I have a picture of the menu somewhere, I believe) had pineapple in it. On the menu translated from Spanish into English, it read fragmentation hand grenade

JensAyton · Post by **JensAyton** » Thu Nov 26, 2009 7:48 pm

Eric Walch wrote:
A general mistake a Dutch person can make when he politely want to say to its German guest: "take a seat", but tries to do that in his best german: "Platzen Sie !" (This means in reality something like: do explode !)

Traditional Swedish/Danish joke: a Swede gets into a cab in Copenhagen, and says “Take me somewhere fun!” So the cabbie drops him off at a cemetery. (“Roligt” means fun in Swedish, but peaceful/calm in Danish.)

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 9:05 am

Eric Walch wrote:
Commander McLane wrote:
Eric Walch wrote:
As street writes.
I know, it's just an honest typo, but still: The guy is called Screet, not Street.

Sometimes flame wars develop from such innocent mistakes, and we wouldn't want that, would we?
Also bad translations can start a war....

A general mistake a Dutch person can make when he politely want to say to its German guest: "take a seat", but tries to do that in his best german: "Platzen Sie !" (This means in reality something like: do explode !)

And I remember the occasion we has dinner in a Dutch restaurant with a German guest at our table. When the waiter brought the desert for him. It was an ice-cream with chocolate sauce what on the menu was written as "Dame Blance", the waiter wanted to show he new a bit of German: "Hier ist Ihrer blanke Dame". Our guest was very confused (In German it mend something like "nude woman", but it was not the kind of establishment that would have had those available. And his wife was with him )

On a NATO trial in France - I was in a restaurant with my English Colleagues and some of our Dutch counterparts - we put in a big order and we wanted all the food to come altogether rather than in dribs and drabs - so I said to Richard my Dutch friend (knowing he spoke good French) - "Could you ask the the waitress to bring all our food together?". Richard nods - the waitress comes over and Richard says in perfect English "Could you bring our food all together?"

Killer Wolf · Post by **Killer Wolf** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 10:41 am

could you bring our food in the altogether

Commander McLane · Post by **Commander McLane** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 11:50 am

Or the result could have been that they bring everything mixed together in a bucket, with the eggs on top.

Selezen · Post by **Selezen** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:03 pm

There was another famous one... Some US president or something went to Frankfurt and declared proudly "ich bein ein frankfurter", which apparently means "I am a sausage of the frankfurter variety".

To say "I am a native of the city of Frankfurt", it's apparently "ich bein frankfurter".

Go figure.

Website · Post by **Cody** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:09 pm

It was JFK and it was in Berlin.
I believe the translation came out as "I am a doughnut".

Website · Post by **DaddyHoggy** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:12 pm

El Viejo wrote:
It was JFK and it was in Berlin.
I believe the translation came out as "I am a doughnut".

Not that I condone the use of Wikipedia as the source of potential facts but...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ich_bin_ein_Berliner

Post by **Kaks** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 1:29 pm

Kind of if someone wanted to say they were from Denmark:

I am a Danish!

Never fails to crack me up!

Yes, I really need to go out more...

PS: sure, his intended Berlin audience doesen't call them berliners, but elsewhere in the german speaking world that sentence does tend to bring the following image to mind: