| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9] > | Off topic: What is the funniest mistake you have come across when proofreading? Thread poster: Paul Dixon
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Zamira B. 
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:42
Member (2006)
English to Russian
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My colleague in the ofiice suggested that we read each other's translations of economic research to check for any typos etc and when reading her translation I felt that the word 'bottomneck' looked strange. It took me a while to realize that it should have been 'bottleneck' instead.
| | | | | the missing letter in the word "public" | Nov 20, 2008 |
which gave "in the pubic interest".....
Need I say more?
| | | | Jalapeno
Local time: 21:42
English to German
| One of my own ... | Nov 20, 2008 |
... that was thankfully caught in time:
I was translating a list of items and characters in a videogame. In the middle of a list of characters, the term "hatchback" appeared:
granny
cop
business man
hatchback
jock
male teenager
female teenager
A "hatchback", of course, is a type of car. The list of cars came at a later point in the file and I was still so focused on characters that I somehow I misread the term as "hunchba... See more ... that was thankfully caught in time:
I was translating a list of items and characters in a videogame. In the middle of a list of characters, the term "hatchback" appeared:
granny
cop
business man
hatchback
jock
male teenager
female teenager
A "hatchback", of course, is a type of car. The list of cars came at a later point in the file and I was still so focused on characters that I somehow I misread the term as "hunchback" and translated it into German accordingly ... ▲ Collapse
| | | | Jack Doughty
United Kingdom
Local time: 20:42
Russian to English
+ ...
In memoriam | One of my own in Latin | Nov 20, 2008 |
(Going back about 65 years)
As a schoolboy, I was asked to translate "sheep lying in the fields" into Latin.
I came up with "oves mendaces in agros", which means "sheep telling lies
in the fields".
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| Here is another one | Nov 20, 2008 |
I was proofreading a medical article and read something like 'patients with fever experience this' in Turkish, which at that moment sounded correct without giving it a second thought. Then I looked at the original document and saw that it actually said 'fewer patients experience this'
| | | | | A bilingual secretary... | Nov 20, 2008 |
She was not soooo bilingual, but amazingly fast in finding any word in the EN-PT & PT-EN Michaelis dictionary of the 1960s, the most misleading such publication ever. It listed translations from the least to the most commonly used meaning, when it got as far as the most common meaning. AFAIK the current edition of the Michaelis is not that bad.
The company we worked for, the subsidiary of an American group in Brazil, manufactured among many other things, slurry pumps, which w... See more She was not soooo bilingual, but amazingly fast in finding any word in the EN-PT & PT-EN Michaelis dictionary of the 1960s, the most misleading such publication ever. It listed translations from the least to the most commonly used meaning, when it got as far as the most common meaning. AFAIK the current edition of the Michaelis is not that bad.
The company we worked for, the subsidiary of an American group in Brazil, manufactured among many other things, slurry pumps, which were named bombas de lama in Portuguese. While translating a technical report into English, she stumbled on those bombas de lama, and translated them literally into mud bombs (which would also be translated as bombas de lama in Portuguese).
The fact that both pump and bomb are translated into Portuguese as bomba often causes trouble. Apparently one Brazilian was arrested by airport security in the USA because he explained in his flawed English that he had a "gasoline bomb" (bomba de gasolina) in his luggage. Actually it was a fuel pump for his motorcycle. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Stephen Rifkind
Israel
Local time: 22:42
Member (2004)
French to English
+ ...
| The ad was right! | Nov 20, 2008 |
I once saw a college newspaper ad calling for proofreaders. Right below was an advetisement for "Buttucks Wilshire" - The store is called Bullucks Wilshire, but apparently was a pain in the .... In any case, the ad was correct.
Stephen Rifkind
| | | | | UFO (Unidentified Flying Octopus) | Nov 20, 2008 |
I was proofreading film subtitles.
The original was a father concerned about his daughter hitchhiking in California.
- You will be beaten to an unrecognizable pulp
by some unknown surfer.
Translation:
Te golpearán con un pulpo desconocido
hasta dejarlo irreconocible.
I was working late at night. Everybody else in the house slept. I can't remember where the surfer ended up in the translation, but I can remember that my mouth dropped... See more
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Gerard de Noord
France
Local time: 21:42
Member (2003)
English to Dutch
+ ...
Johannes Irmer wrote:
... that was thankfully caught in time:
I was translating a list of items and characters in a videogame. In the middle of a list of characters, the term "hatchback" appeared:
granny
cop
business man
hatchback
jock
male teenager
female teenager
A "hatchback", of course, is a type of car. The list of cars came at a later point in the file and I was still so focused on characters that I somehow I misread the term as "hunchback" and translated it into German accordingly ...
Oh dear, I would probably have made the same mistake.
Gerard
| | | | Andrea Riffo
Chile
Local time: 15:42
English to Spanish
+ ...
Óscar Delgado Gosálvez wrote: I was proofreading film subtitles. The original was a father concerned about his daughter hitchhiking in California. - You will be beaten to an unrecognizable pulp by some unknown surfer. Translation: Te golpearán con un pulpo desconocido hasta dejarlo irreconocible. I was working late at night. Everybody else in the house slept. I can't remember where the surfer ended up in the translation, but I can remember that my mouth dropped wide open and then I had to laugh so hard that I woke my wife up. 
I'm not suprised that your laughter woke up you wife. I very nearly spewed coffee all over the screen when I read this just now, and I didn't even experience ir firsthand!! :lol::lol::lol::lol:
[Edited at 2008-11-21 00:29 GMT]
| | | | Juliana Brown
Israel
Local time: 15:42
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...
ariffo wrote: Óscar Delgado Gosálvez wrote: I was proofreading film subtitles. The original was a father concerned about his daughter hitchhiking in California. - You will be beaten to an unrecognizable pulp by some unknown surfer. Translation: Te golpearán con un pulpo desconocido hasta dejarlo irreconocible. I was working late at night. Everybody else in the house slept. I can't remember where the surfer ended up in the translation, but I can remember that my mouth dropped wide open and then I had to laugh so hard that I woke my wife up. I'm not suprised that your laughter woke up you wife. I very nearly spewed coffee all over the screen when I read this just now, and I didn't even experience ir firsthand!! :lol::lol::lol::lol: [Edited at 2008-11-21 00:29 GMT]
If being beaten with a "pulpo conocido" (a known octopus, for non-Spanish speakers) would be anymore enjoyable .
| | | | Andy Watkinson
Spain
Local time: 21:42
Member
Catalan to English
+ ...
| Mas vale pulpo conocido que pulpo que conocer, digo.... | Nov 21, 2008 |
Juliana Starkman wrote: ariffo wrote: Óscar Delgado Gosálvez wrote: I was proofreading film subtitles. The original was a father concerned about his daughter hitchhiking in California. - You will be beaten to an unrecognizable pulp by some unknown surfer. Translation: Te golpearán con un pulpo desconocido hasta dejarlo irreconocible. I was working late at night. Everybody else in the house slept. I can't remember where the surfer ended up in the translation, but I can remember that my mouth dropped wide open and then I had to laugh so hard that I woke my wife up. I'm not suprised that your laughter woke up you wife. I very nearly spewed coffee all over the screen when I read this just now, and I didn't even experience ir firsthand!! :lol::lol::lol::lol: [Edited at 2008-11-21 00:29 GMT] If being beaten with a "pulpo conocido" (a known octopus, for non-Spanish speakers) would be anymore enjoyable .
Andy
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| One of my own from long ago | Nov 21, 2008 |
In my first job as a bilingual secretary in a merchant bank long years ago, I caused great mirth by typing "revolting letter of credit" instead of "revolving letter of credit". I still remember my shame!
Jenny
| | | | Melzie
Local time: 21:42
French to English
+ ...
| Delighted to share a similar past with Jack! | Nov 21, 2008 |
Jack Doughty wrote:
(Going back about 65 years)
As a schoolboy, I was asked to translate "sheep lying in the fields" into Latin.
I came up with "oves mendaces in agros", which means "sheep telling lies
in the fields".
For my mock Latin O level I translated “the soldiers took off their sandals to climb barefoot up the cliff” to “the soldiers climbed naked up the cliff”!
They must have been having fits in the staff room!
| | | | | The trouble with birds... | Nov 21, 2008 |
A few months ago, an agency (that I regularly work for) asked me to translate some menus for a high-end Parisian restaurant. Realising that I was rather busy and fairly confident of their English skills, they thought they would translate the "easy" bits to save me time!!
Well, the restaurant had decided to give each of its set menus the name of a bird, so there were things like "The Sparrow Menu", "The Eagle Menu", and so on. That's all very well, until the agency had a stab at tran... See more A few months ago, an agency (that I regularly work for) asked me to translate some menus for a high-end Parisian restaurant. Realising that I was rather busy and fairly confident of their English skills, they thought they would translate the "easy" bits to save me time!!
Well, the restaurant had decided to give each of its set menus the name of a bird, so there were things like "The Sparrow Menu", "The Eagle Menu", and so on. That's all very well, until the agency had a stab at translating the mésange menu. A mésange is a (blue)tit… you can probably see where this is going! As you can imagine, I creased up when I saw "The Tits Menu". I dare say such a menu exists if you go to certain seedy tourist resorts, but not some swanky Parisian restaurant!
Simon ▲ Collapse
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