I bought several boxes of string lights recently and each box has a different french translation of the english. Here is the english version:
Suitable for outdoor use
Here are the three different french versions:
1. Convient pour une utilisation à l'extérieur
2. can't remember but it was something not quite the same but similar in connotation to the first
3. A uitiliser à l'extérieur seulement.
Does anyone see the problem here? The third french translation makes it seem like it is dangerous to use indoors. I am not even sure if the lights were originally made by french-speaking people, but I am guessing not since all three boxes had the same english translation but three different french translations.
Anyone else encounter stuff like this?
Suitable for outdoor use
Here are the three different french versions:
1. Convient pour une utilisation à l'extérieur
2. can't remember but it was something not quite the same but similar in connotation to the first
3. A uitiliser à l'extérieur seulement.
Does anyone see the problem here? The third french translation makes it seem like it is dangerous to use indoors. I am not even sure if the lights were originally made by french-speaking people, but I am guessing not since all three boxes had the same english translation but three different french translations.
Anyone else encounter stuff like this?
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Re: lazy translations
Sun, December 17, 2006 - 3:11 PMHi Diane,
I can see you are also in Canada.
I am a translator but not quite lazy. Translator work very hard and have to be extremely precise.
It is fortunate for us that it is a funny field.
There was that translation blooper going around a few years ago. It was about a sweater made in Turkey and you guessed it was translated as « fait en dinde».
Dinde is the animal - the poultry.
Turquie is the country - the translation that should have appeared.
As for the three translations, it is a mystery of life and a reason why it is so dang interesting.
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Re: lazy translations
Thu, February 1, 2007 - 12:27 PMI'm a linguist by education, my hubby is a translator by trade.
we spend hours debating stuff like this.
My graduate thesis was a 200 page study on the way "Wakan Tanka" "Tunkashila" and "Taku Skan Skan" (all religious terms) were translated from lakota into English (and conversely, how teh ubiquitous "god" was translated into lakota.
If you've never though about translation, it can sure boggle the mind.
Best one to ask people is so simple, yet so devious. "how do you translate the statement" "i was finally home" or more simply, teh word HOME.
