[atlarge-discuss] Re: Translation software - fly naked

["Ron Sherwood" <sherwood@islands.vi>]

Good morning, all:

    Those who abhor off-topic content should delete now.

    A few weeks ago, there was some heated discussion on this list. It concerned the use of off-the-shelf translation software to enable our discus-list and website to be used in many different languages.  The language professionals advocated human translation, preferably by someone who spoke the language into which the data was to be read.  There was also the software lobby who strongly proclaimed that the output from translation software was "good enough".  The professional gave examples of misunderstandings, the software advocates said it didn't matter.

    Below, I copy the humorous (and sometimes economically devastating) side of some errors made when translating literally.

Ron

These are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is given 
in honor of GM's fiasco in trying to market this car in 
Central and South America. "No va" means, in Spanish, "No go."

1. The Dairy Association's huge success with the campaign 
"Got Milk?" prompted them to expand advertising to Mexico. It 
was soon brought to their attention the Spanish translation 
read "Are you lactating?"

2. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the 
name of a notorious adult magazine.

3. An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the 
Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of "I 
saw the Pope" (el Papa), the shirts read "I Saw the Potato" 
(la papa).

4. Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated 
into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in 
Chinese.

5. The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", 
meaning "Bite the wax tadpole" or "female horse stuffed with 
wax", depending on the dialect.  Coke then researched 40,000 
characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokou kole", 
translating into "happiness in the mouth."

6. Frank Perdue's chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to 
make a tender chicken" was translated into Spanish as "it takes 
an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate."

7. When American Airlines wanted to advertise its new leather 
first class seats in the Mexican market, it translated its "Fly 
In Leather" campaign literally, which meant "Fly Naked" (vuela 
en cuero) in Spanish!