By MTM LinguaSoft on March 31st, 2015
Bad English translations of foreign menus can provide hours of fun. Just google bad menu translations on Google Images for a guaranteed laugh. Menus can be difficult to translate in any case (see “International Cuisine: The Challenge of Translating Menus”). Moreover, many restaurant and eatery owners, without the money for professional translation, resort to machine …Read More
By Myriam Siftar on February 1st, 2010
How do I know it’s right? In most cases, when you send something out to be translated, you will not be able to tell whether the translator got it right. After all, you usually don’t know the other language. This sign in Wales is an extreme example of what can happen when you just take …Read More
By MTM LinguaSoft on March 1st, 2009
Translators’ false friends I recently heard about a mystery story in which the American murder victim tried to tell the French witnesses that he’d been poisoned. When he died, the witnesses couldn’t understand why he’d been asking for fish (poisson in French). Another story has it that, after World War II, the U.S. distributed food …Read More
By MTM LinguaSoft on September 1st, 2007
We’ve all seen bad English translations of foreign menus. Most are the result of using the cheapest available translator (the “bilingual” employee or family member) or of simply choosing literal dictionary translations. You may have come across some of these on your summer travels. For example, French translator, Amanda Grey, recently reported on Elonso blog …Read More
By Myriam Siftar on July 1st, 2007
80% of Firms Surveyed Report Problems According to a survey of global businesses carried out by SDL International, eight out of ten international businesses are suffering because of translation errors that have caused lost revenue, delayed product launches or even resulted in fines for non-compliance. The survey also revealed that half of the firms that …Read More