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Reprinted from the Foreign Language Learning Update Jan. 1992:
As almost traveler knows, communication in foreign countries can
take some humorous turns through translation. Here are some
signs and notices written in English that were spied around the
world by corporate travelers.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
"We take your bags and send them in all directions."
In a Paris hotel elevator:
"Please leave your values at the front desk."
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
"The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time
we regret that you will be unbearable."
A sign posted in the Black Forest:
"It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site
that people of different sex, for instance, men and women,
live together in one tent unless they are married with each
other for that purpose."
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
"Our wines leave you with nothing to hope for."
In a Liepzig elevator:
"Do not enter lift backwartds, and only when lit up."
In a Belgrade hotel elevator:
"To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the
cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a
number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically
by national order."
In a hotel in Athens:
"Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the
hours of 9 and 11 am daily."
27 responses total.
Anguished English! Another fan!
can you please post all the translations that were on that sheet?
Sorry, I don't have that newsletter anymore. I think that's all there was, though.
There are at least two words in German for elavator (lift). They can be loosely translated: Aufzug = up train Fahrstuhl = driving chair
there were some more... something about get your rent a ass here. (some where like India).
Direct translations are great. Auf Wiedersehen! = Up again see! What are you up to? = Was bist du auf zu? (Two that I use regularly. :-)
For what?
fun
To duplicate two I've mentioned elsewhere (one being only an imitation direct translation): there's that von Trapp anecdote where the German woman said (in English) "Behold your cabbage! I can become a cabbage around the corner ... ". And: There's no arguing with Gus.
Hmmm... I once saw a graffitto (sp?) in Kiel that read: "Love is so hart when it is all out." I think my favorite, though, is he local fraternity Phi Alpha Kappa, and the effect that seeing 'FAK' written in 10-foot-high letters has on Russians. (FAK being somewhat of a universal obscenity in Europe...)
Why should a Russian react to FAK? There is no F in cyrillic. The letter with an F sound in Russian, does not appear in the Roman alphabet. Why doesn't the fraternity abbreviate PAK? That would be "rack" in Russian. I don't get it (except in English...;-)).
I presume (that's presume) that the letters in question are Greek, and that the relationship between the Cyrillic and Greek alphabets is responsible for the misunderstanding. But maybe dker will tell us for sure.
That PAK in #11 should be "rock" in Russian - they don't have our nasal "a". (Thought I'd clear this up, before all the watchers here jumped on me :))
Oops... I guess I hadng out with the wrong people. The fraternity's name, while spelled in Greek, reads as the leeters 'F', 'A', and 'K' in Russian. A Russian, not being aware of the Greek Letter Societies, tends to assume that the sign is in Russian. A similar problem sometimes arises with Americans in Germany who are not familiar with the word "Ass" (what we would call 'ace'), which occasionally appears in advertisements... Seems to me that there was a Danish soft-drink known as 'Prick-Cola' too, although I could be wrong. Oh, and in relation to the Russian, the sound /a/ is what Russians typically substitute for English /schwa/. So you see words like 'sabvai' (Nyu York has one), 'ragbi' (a sport popular in England), and, yes, 'fak'. Hope this clears up more than it garbles.
There's a famous Norwegian brewery called "Ass", but there's a little "o" above the A. It's pronounced "Orse", sort of. They make a very nice X-mas ale.
Well, it works the other way around, too... Ask a German about Schlitz beer some day...
My father remembers that at the end of a dinner party in Italy, the hostess politely asked him if he was "all fed up?" ... Last summer, while in Russia, I saw the word "FAK" written in large letters, actually in our alphabet, on a wall. I feel rather stupid now, 'cause we thought that they were just trying to be cool etc. and had actually made complete fools of themselves by misspelling the word...now I see that it was just us that had made complete fools out of ourselves...ah well. Hopefully no Russians overheard us...
Yes, but don't forget that there are wonderful mistranslations FROM English:
The Chevvy "Nova" ("Doesn't go" in Spanish)
Coke's slogan in China translated as: "Coke brings your ancestors back from
the dead"
and, of course, sitting in a French restaurant and saying, "Why, I couldn't
eat another bite; I'm pregnant!"
That Chinese Coke slogan is just great. A little frightening, though... wouldn't want to visit China only to watch green zombies wandering about with Coke bottles in hand...
King James Bible, Luke 2:14 (translated from Martin Luther's German) reads Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. A direct translation from the Greek in the New Revised Standard Version is Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace among those whom he favors. (From the American Translators' Association Chronicle, May 1997, Humor and Translation). Even translation can be affected by politics. My mother had on the wall a curious Latin saying: O civili, si ergo, fortibus es in ero. Anyone want to 'translate' this one. (Read it aloud). Dinersty has on its daily menu 'soul fish'.
(I *think* I posted the "O sibili/si ergo" poem (more than you quoted) somewhere a long time ago. Maybe in the Latin item?
I will look in the Latin item, thanks. If it is not there, please post it here, I seem to have gotten it wrong.
I did not find the 'Latin' in the Latin item. And I am pretty sure about civil on my mother's wall. There must be at least two versions. Where else might I look, or can you post it again?
I found it. It's in the *other* Latin item, the is-Latin-worth-studying one, #15 resp 37.
From French Widow in Every Room by Dennis Winston (1987). English-language menu items: broiling of trellis eggs with viennese dogs fumigated smocked chees eggs with a reindeer tart with rubber chocolate grilled lamp split tummy egg plant virgins lips beef strongenuff rissole of lady's thigh pike in athenians blight utmost of chicken as Hungarian bowels in spit young partridge over sofa a half cock of the countrywoman wery stronk beer saints bones children sandwiches nestcafe arm of a gypsy French likers blandy mar tartars beef roots jerked meat (this one is real!) fumigated sausage zingarakewers curled milka sleep shrimp nets hen blood stew slop brandy zin bluberlips suckling pin lambent rails friend milk lamb shops buttrepishes strange cheese breast of foul chef sloin financier brood of eels tart of this house pork loin with jewess scrap-heap eggs various slights minuet steaks roasted jam to the American style salad with gardener fried sheat-fish with fogosh miller's wife style (Dinersty still has soul fish) frozen soup with peccadilloes rape, seamanlike style assaulted artichoke friend cod gumpoes spawned cabbag I could figure out only a few of these (curdled sheep's milk - cheese)
that list looks like a translator's dream (or nightmare). Some are just typos methinks. (Suckling Pig) I like beef strongenuff, that's a hoot!
"scrap-heap eggs" isn't that far off from "garbage omelette", which I've seen on menus here for an omlette with lots of stuff in it.
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