timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7131 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin
| Message 1 of 30 16 September 2005 at 1:08pm | IP Logged |
I don't know about the rest of you, but I love to read about funny translations and interpretations. Would it be okay to have a thread containing these interesting mistakes?
In my marketing class, my instructor was telling us about a Pepsi campaign in Japan that essentially told people to "drink pepsi, it will bring your ancestors back from the dead," instead of "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation."
1 person has voted this message useful
|
timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7131 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin
| Message 2 of 30 16 September 2005 at 5:42pm | IP Logged |
Okay, not as popular as I thought it would be. That's okay.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
Sir Nigel Senior Member United States Joined 7118 days ago 1126 posts - 1102 votes 2 sounds
| Message 3 of 30 16 September 2005 at 6:01pm | IP Logged |
Some aren't as funny as others, but I like the local restaurant where I live that has an exit and "entering" door. Oh and I get my latest updates from engrish.com. Pretty funny stuff.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
timinstl Triglot Groupie United States timsviajes.com Joined 7131 days ago 88 posts - 92 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, French Studies: Italian, Mandarin
| Message 4 of 30 16 September 2005 at 11:41pm | IP Logged |
Thank you Sir Nigel for the link. I'll have a look.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
orion Senior Member United States Joined 7035 days ago 622 posts - 678 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Russian
| Message 5 of 30 18 September 2005 at 1:46am | IP Logged |
I was speaking to some Russian friends once. I intended to say, "I need a beer" (menye noozhna piva). I used the word pizda instead, which refers to a part of the female reproductive anatomy. As you can imagine, the Russians found this quite entertaining!
5 persons have voted this message useful
|
ElComadreja Senior Member Philippines bibletranslatio Joined 7252 days ago 683 posts - 757 votes 2 sounds Speaks: English* Studies: Spanish, Portuguese, Latin, Ancient Greek, Biblical Hebrew, Cebuano, French, Tagalog
| Message 6 of 30 18 September 2005 at 9:35am | IP Logged |
I recall that Pepsi flub, although I thought it was China, and Coke. Anyway, I think the original phrase was supposed to be “Pepsi adds life,” Which may give you a better idea of how the words got twisted around.
I need to research this, but I seem to remember a cola campaign in Japan that was supposed to be something like "Enjoy coca cola" and it came out "bite the wax tadpole"
This was a translation flub I recall hearing about that was caught before it went out. Even though it's essentially the same language. The “Snickers” candy bar when sold in Britain had a name change or something because it sounded too much like the British word for women’s underwear.
I really should look some of this stuff up. :(
I think the Russian learners should get this one: Someone tried to say in Russian "Can you write it for me?" and instead asked about a bodily function.
1 person has voted this message useful
|
dmg Diglot Senior Member Canada dgryski.blogspot.comRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 7025 days ago 555 posts - 605 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Dutch, Esperanto
| Message 7 of 30 19 September 2005 at 6:15pm | IP Logged |
The BBC's language site has a large collection of user-submitted stories:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/languages/yoursay/lost_for_words.shtml
1 person has voted this message useful
|
DonbertK Diglot Newbie United States Joined 7232 days ago 23 posts - 24 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Japanese
| Message 8 of 30 19 September 2005 at 6:55pm | IP Logged |
This is from Snopes.com, though it's not real:
Quote:
Twelve hundred Turkish prisoners were mistakenly killed in 1799 by Napoleon after he ordered them set free. He complained about a coughing fit he was having, but his words, "Ma sacrée toux," (my confounded cough) were misunderstood. Instead his men thought he uttered "Massacrez tous" (kill them all), so they opened fire, killing every prisoner. |
|
|
1 person has voted this message useful
|