Category:
Mistranslations

Welsh translation

2008: Since all official road signs in Wales are bilingual, transportation officials emailed the English text of a new sign to a translator and promptly received back a response in Welsh, which they placed on the sign. And the sign went up on the road.

Welsh speakers later pointed out that the Welsh text read, "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated."

According to Google Translate, the correct Welsh text should have been: "Dim mynediad i gerbydau nwyddau trwm. Safle preswyl yn unig."

More info: BBC News

Posted By: Alex - Sun Jan 22, 2023 - Comments (0)
Category: Mistranslations

Kinki Nippon Tourist


The Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. was founded in 1947. By the 1970s it had become Japan's second-largest travel agency. But trouble began to emerge when, during this same decade, Japanese tourists showed up in Europe and America, often carrying bags emblazoned with the name "Kinki Nippon Tourist." Naturally, this attracted some attention.

London Daily Telegraph - Oct 25, 1972



Saffron Walden Weekly News - July 1, 1976



The name 'Kinki' referred, of course, to the Kinki region in the south of Japan. Also known as the Kansai region. It had nothing to do with the sexual preferences of the tourists. But in a possible case of truth in advertising, the Kinki Nippon Tourist Co. was, in fact, involved in a scandal in 1979 for having arranged sex tours abroad for Japanese businessmen.

Vineland Daily Journal - Nov 28, 1979



The company quickly learned what its name meant in English, so when it opened a branch in America in 1974 it didn't use the Kinki name. Instead, it called itself Kintetsu International Express (it's still in business).

Likewise, the name Kinki has become a problem for other organizations in the Kinki region that have an international presence. For instance, in 2016 Kinki University changed its name in English to Kindai University, in order to spare the staff and students embarrassment when they traveled abroad.

Posted By: Alex - Mon Oct 10, 2022 - Comments (0)
Category: Innuendo, Double Entendres, Symbolism, Nudge-Nudge-Wink-Wink and Subliminal Messages, Odd Names, Asia, Mistranslations

Inappropriate Content Hallucination

Inappropriate Content Hallucination, as defined by a recent study conducted by researchers at the Rochester Institute of Technology, is when artificial intelligence systems insert dirty words into the subtitles of videos meant for kids. From their article:

Over the last few years, YouTube Kids has emerged as one of the highly competitive alternatives to television for children's entertainment. Consequently, YouTube Kids' content should receive an additional level of scrutiny to ensure children's safety. While research on detecting offensive or inappropriate content for kids is gaining momentum, little or no current work exists that investigates to what extent AI applications can (accidentally) introduce content that is inappropriate for kids.

In this paper, we present a novel (and troubling) finding that well-known automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems may produce text content highly inappropriate for kids while transcribing YouTube Kids' videos. We dub this phenomenon as inappropriate content hallucination. Our analyses suggest that such hallucinations are far from occasional, and the ASR systems often produce them with high confidence.


More info: Indian Express

Posted By: Alex - Tue Apr 19, 2022 - Comments (3)
Category: AI, Robots and Other Automatons, Mistranslations, Swears

Special Chinese Kid’s Book



Who could resist spending $57.40 plus $10.00 shipping for a book with this description:

Turtle with a small purple alien friend scientific expedition. Crossing the Sea like Crossing the Sea two stories travel the world. Little Turtle purple alien with friends explore the ocean together. they saw the beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. but dangerous whale is near! Little purple alien turtles have a friend who has a cool graduated spaceship! Spaceship. turtles and small purple alien friends a series of scientific adventures. They leap into space. understanding the mystery of the eight planets; they cross the center of the earth. after a dangerous volcanoes . But not all smooth sailing expedition. when they go to sea. but accidentally be swallowed into the stomach.


Item is here at time of posting.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Dec 02, 2016 - Comments (3)
Category: Confusion, Misunderstanding, and Incomprehension, Books, Asia, Mistranslations

Ital-glish

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Some fractured or idiosyncratic English which I photographed this week in Italy.

Posted By: Paul - Mon Dec 30, 2013 - Comments (12)
Category: Signage, Europe, Mistranslations

Les Franglaises







Explanation is here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Oct 30, 2012 - Comments (5)
Category: Music, Europe, Mistranslations

Tinkle Comic

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A most unfortunate choice of names for this Hindu comic.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Oct 17, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Comics, India, Mistranslations

Funny Cut

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Last week I was in Hamburg, Germany, for a literary conference. I snapped this foto at the Dammtor train station.

I am not sure of the wisdom of getting one's hair styled at a place with this name.

Posted By: Paul - Fri Oct 08, 2010 - Comments (5)
Category: Hair Styling, Europe, Mistranslations

And The Angels Sing—Japanese Style!





Something tells me the lovely and enthusiastic Japanese singer here has learned her lyrics phonetically--and I'm not sure they emerge as English.

Original Glenn Miller version included for purposes of comparison.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 21, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Languages, Mistranslations, Music, Asia

Google Translation

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I have a Google Alert keyed to my name, as most authors do. Imagine my surprise to find myself cited on a Taiwanese sci-fi fan page whose name Google chooses to translate thus. I hope the AMA does not find out I'm practicing cancer medicine without a license!

Click to enlarge image, if necessary!

Posted By: Paul - Sat Feb 06, 2010 - Comments (3)
Category: Asia, Mistranslations





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Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

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Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

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