Would it kill you to hire competent translators?

Having an Italian wife means spending lots of time in Italy. I really enjoy collecting examples of crummy translations, so I couldn’t pass this one up.

Click on the image to see the note in Flickr (created with MemoryMiner, natch).

3 Responses to “Would it kill you to hire competent translators?”

  1. Ted Todorov Says:

    That’s a classic. I should have started collecting these years ago.

    Still, I’m glad they translated. Back in the day, there were keep out signs (supposedly there were drinking water springs in the area) along the hiking path up to Черни Връх (Black Peak) on Vitosha saying “Стреля се без предупреждение” with no translation whatsoever. In case your Bulgarian is rusty — that means “we shoot without warning”. And when they said no warning, in the case of someone who didn’t speak Bulgarian, that was literal. Now a days there is a much less threatening English language sign, and the freezing draftee with the machine gun near the peak is long gone as well.

  2. John Fox Says:

    Am I the only one in the world who longs for the less-complicated days of the cold war?

  3. scott Says:

    I long for it too. Much more interesting, and in retrospect, apparently something we at least partially knew how to deal with.

    Anyway, regarding the signs, you should see some of the classics we saw in Japan. Somewhere I have a travel book my dad bought while we were living there that’s just hilarious. Almost every page makes you cry with laughter.

    Enjoying you on the developer network podcast, btw! Great podcast.

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