Lost in translation

[Eagi]

I think we have all managed to run into a language barrier at one time or an other. Be it in gaming, movies or just talking to a stranger.

For me I think my funniest moment was when just having started studying Japanese in Tokyo. I was sitting in a park with my lawn-chair a bottle of CC-Lemon and a good book. A Japanese old lady walks past saying ほんとにいい気持ちですね。(honto ni ii kimochi desune)　I politely nod and after she's walked past I pull out my phone eager to learn what I was just called I mean for all I knew it could have been an Insult. Google-translate at that time gave me the following translation "The sincere feeling of cuteness" The Fuck!? I later learnt that it meant something more along the lines of "that feels nice right." But I walked along the rest of that day pondering at hear comment and what a strange country I had ended up in...

Now to google-translates defence they did change the translation about a year later, but still it was fun as long as it lasted.

Please tell me Your lost in translation stories.

 

[Zorpheus]

I have a couple from when my family and I took a trip to France with my High School class.

We went to a French McDonalds. I knew how to basically order the food, but special ordering and condiments... were a bit more tricky. I wanted to order my hamburger without onions. I knew "Onion Soup" was "Soup au l'oignon" (literally means "Soup with the onion"). They did not understand it when I tried to use "Ne pas d'oignon", however (theoretically "no onion"). Perhaps it's the way I said it. Not sure. Anyway, we also wanted to get some salt. I knew in French that "salé" means "salty". But I couldn't remember with what just-plain-salt was. So I was trying to use "salé" with them and a shaking motion with my hand. After a bit of looking at me weird, they directed me to the bathroom (salle de bains, or "room of baths"). Found out later I was looking for "sel". Not sure why "salé" means salty while "sel" means salt in French.

Later on, we were at a sit-down restaurant. We were with another party, and wanted separate bills. After a bit of trying to get the waiter to understand, he says he does and leaves. A short time later, we all get beers (the english word is almost the same as the French one).

 

[DanielBrown]

Saw a movie when I was young, where someone looked around the streets filled with kids just laying around(as I remember it), and shouted "Look at all these punks!". Got translated to Swedish as "Titta på alla punkare!" - "Look at all these punk rockers!".
I thought it was pretty funny. Not exactly lost in translation, but it was the best one I could remember at the moment.

The Swedish word closest to "punk" is "skitunge" which translates to shitty kid, kind of.

 

[6unn3r]

There used to be a drink in France called PSHIT! I think it was lemonade, but to 8 slightly rowdy Brits on holiday it was freekin hilarious!

 

[ShindoL Shill]

my mother teaches mentally and physically disabled children.
she has to ask for important medication in polish.
she can't speak polish.

 

[Abedeus]

You know that company Osram that makes light bulbs and the likes of those?

Osram in Polish means "I will shit on (something/someone)". Takes many years to stop laughing whenever you hear a commercial or look at a light bulb.

 

[LongHairRocker]

Yeah in Saints Row 2 in the end when the boss says Figures it is translated in Dutch as: cijfers,
that means numbers. Totally my favorite translation fail..

 

[Scarim Coral]

Since I'm a BBC but can't speak and listen Chinese properly I have my fair share of lost in translation stories.
When I was on holiday in China I was in the Gundam section in the super mall. The thing is, in China malls there are those employees who stand around in different departments who ask customers for assistants. Needless to say they had always come up to me asking for something but I didn't know how to reply back so I always come off as an idiot.
I got to the point that I had to bring my dad along so he can tell them that we are fine without any assistants.

 

[Zeema]

this thread reminded me of this


but i have never really had a issue ive always know wat people say to me

 

[Lukeje]

Which begs the question: Why order onion soup If you don't want onions?? That strikes me as much more odd than your little linguistic fumbles.

He didn't want onions on his burger.

 

[Guffe]

Well I've seen loads of things lost in translation or said/written poorly by people who don't know the language but can't really remember any right now. They'll always so funny. But I will visit this one agian when it got more comments, I already laughrd my ass of with just these couple of posts

 

[Rawne1980]

Oniony story style snip

It should be "Soupe à l'oignon". It's hard to explain why, but prepositions are weird like that, just like english when I learned it. And your 'literal' translation is more like "soup made of/made with onions".

"Ne pas" means "Do not", not "no" or "without"; You should've said "Pas d'oignons" (No onions) or "Sans oignons" (Without onions).
Which begs the question: Why order onion soup If you don't want onions?? That strikes me as much more odd than your little linguistic fumbles.

He was trying to order a burger without onions but the only thing he knew was onion soup. He wasn't trying to order onion soup.

On Topic.

Went on a school trip to France, needed the toilet, asked for directions and got pointed towards a swimming pool.

For clarification, I asked some bloke where to go for a piss.

La Piscine is the French word for swimming pool.

Now my guess is, if i'd stood at the edge of the pool and let loose then people would not have been happy.

 

[Aitur]

I try to avoid leaving the English speaking world, I have a hard enough time with that language without getting involved in any others.
But I do think Backstroke of the West deserves an honourable mention in the thread

 

[The_Blue_Rider]

I try to avoid leaving the English speaking world, I have a hard enough time with that language without getting involved in any others.
But I do think Backstroke of the West deserves an honourable mention in the thread

That is the best thing ive ever seen, i knew at the end something was gonna happen but i was not expecting that instead of the NOOOOOOO XD

 

[Yopaz]

Saw a movie when I was young, where someone looked around the streets filled with kids just laying around(as I remember it), and shouted "Look at all these punks!". Got translated to Swedish as "Titta på alla punkare!" - "Look at all these punk rockers!".
I thought it was pretty funny. Not exactly lost in translation, but it was the best one I could remember at the moment.

The Swedish word closest to "punk" is "skitunge" which translates to shitty kid, kind of.

Been there. I often get distracted by both Norwegian and Swedish subtitles because they often show that the translator either isn't that good at his job or that they have had a bad day when they did that particular job.
I remember an episode of the Simpsons where they translated "Eat my shorts" to "Spis min skjorte" (Eat my shirt). It made me depressed that someone actually got paid for that job when I could have done it better at the age of 15...

Edit: back on topic. I was in Poland and Czech a few years back. I didn't understand anything and no-one I met spoke a word English. I remember going to a store and buying something and just handing over money hoping I would get some change back.
The best part was when my friend went to order food not knowing what they were serving or names for any of the foods or how to pronounce it. So he just went there and said "I want something to eat and something to drink" which they did not understand, so he repeated it and mimed eating and drinking and held out some money. They started laughing at him and taking in Polish. 5 minutes later he received some food though.

 

[Mr C]

I've lived in China for almost a decade and have many experiences as a result. Signs are often the funniest here whether you are being told 'no shritting in the isle' on the train (believe it meant 'no spitting in the aisle') or a lovely advert telling you all about the 'Arsehole hospital'. The one I'm still puzzled about is the market sign which claimed 'come fuck the fruit' - any takers?

 

[SckizoBoy]

Holidays in Hong Kong... that's fine, I speak the language and can order myself a good meal etc. Go to Foshan... I'm buggered. It's a Cantonese city, yet why in hell was every word I hear Mandarin?! Or at least that's what it felt like.

 

[Klepa]

So I was trying to use "salé" with them and a shaking motion with my hand. After a bit of looking at me weird, they directed me to the bathroom (salle de bains, or "room of baths").

I'm surprised you didn't get thrown out for asking where the bathroom is, while doing an awkward air-masturbation motion with your hand.

I was at a gathering, where a non-native speaker kept trying to talk with me. He started nearly every conversation with "Sun silmät näkee", translates to something like "Your eyes (can) see".

Him: "Your eyes can see that some people are having more fun than others"
Me: "My eyes just see that?"
Him: "Yeah, only your eyes can see, nobody else's"
Me: "I don't quite understand, but this sounds like something extremely metaphysical, and you seem like an interesting philosopher type person."

Half an hour later, I figure out that what he's actually trying to say is "Sun silmistä näkee", which translates to "I can tell from your eyes". What he was trying to say that my eyes are so red that I'm obviously stoned, and so are some other people.