I went to an authentic Chinese restaurant nearby. It was so authentic, they did not have an English language menu. I ordered by photo, and was very pleased, so went back again a few times.

The last time I went there, the owner proudly showed me her single copy of her menu, translated to English.

I am quite familiar with the Chinese roast pork belly (often hanging up in slabs in the window with Peking duck and BBQ pork at some establishments), so, when I saw "Beef belly with chilli", I thought I'd give it a go.

It was tripe. Somehow, the translation had gone from omasum, to "stomach", to "belly".

Nice enough...but I wish I had known before ordering.

(Basin View Lane, Panmure, Auckland...I reccomend it)

What ARE they trying to say????

I saw a simmilar billboard in the newspaper a few months ago.., from the Olympic games days..... sorry I can't find it, but it said something about vagina.

What ARE they trying to say????

Hardcourt, they have used a translating program and punched in the Chinese words, but, there was an error, and instead of giving the translation it gave "Translate Server Error". As, it would seem, no one knew English enough to know that it was an error rather than the actual translation, they went ahead and took that as the correct translation and printed it up.

Erm..dunno if what i wrote is clear..maybe it needs translating

Edit: I have to say, this kind of thing does have me scratching my head a bit. I see these billboards, menus, etc, made up. Some of them obviously at some expense (particularly the large billboards, that im sure cost quite a lot for design and printing and renting the space to display it etc). Beautifully done, invested in, and then ...spelling mistakes, and/or terrible grammar, and/or really bad translations. I think to myself, why, after all that work and time and investment, do they not have someone double check the English? Is it really so hard to find someone to let them know its ok or not? Or, is it really a case of, its good enough, just leave as is, even though i spent a small fortune on it?

What ARE they trying to say????

Hardcourt, they have used a translating program and punched in the Chinese words, but, there was an error, and instead of giving the translation it gave "Translate Server Error". As, it would seem, no one knew English enough to know that it was an error rather than the actual translation, they went ahead and took that as the correct translation and printed it up.

Erm..dunno if what i wrote is clear..maybe it needs translating

Edit: I have to say, this kind of thing does have me scratching my head a bit. I see these billboards, menus, etc, made up. Some of them obviously at some expense (particularly the large billboards, that im sure cost quite a lot for design and printing and renting the space to display it etc). Beautifully done, invested in, and then ...spelling mistakes, and/or terrible grammar, and/or really bad translations. I think to myself, why, after all that work and time and investment, do they not have someone double check the English? Is it really so hard to find someone to let them know its ok or not? Or, is it really a case of, its good enough, just leave as is, even though i spent a small fortune on it?

Ahhhh. yeah, I get it now....the signwriter did not question the apparent reply of the translating software.

As for the rationale behind it after spending money...... trust the computer?

But there IS humour in alot of these translations, without disparaging the people at all.

I know my early days of using an online or printed dictionary to translate something into Thai must have resulted in humour for the reader

Oh..i completely agree Hardcourt! I love the mis or odd translations.

This is one from a hotel in Loas i stayed in..

Love it, mind bending.

http://www.engrish.com/

There is a restaurant on Koh Samet that has 'Deep fried Aboriginie' on the menu

Any suggestion as to what they intended?

As for LRB's T-shirt...????<deleted>??

Im guessing Deep Fried Aubergines lol. As for the t-shirt..er...<deleted> indeed!!!

Im guessing Deep Fried Aubergines lol. As for the t-shirt..er...<deleted> indeed!!!

Don't like deep-fried aubergines - soaks up all the oil and lays heavy in the stomach.

Deep-fried Abo on the other hand - bush tucker!

The deep-fried aubergine could give rise to the diarrheoa (sp?)

And anyway - that is no more daft than these "My dad went to Broome and all he brought back ..." type of t-shirts. It is a talking point, isn't it?

In a similar vein to the "translate error" post:

When officials asked for the Welsh translation of a road sign, they thought the reply was what they needed.

Unfortunately, the e-mail response to Swansea council said in Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".

So that was what went up under the English version which barred lorries from a road near a supermarket.

-- BBC Friday, 31 October 2008

[newsfooter][/newsfooter]

Excellent!!!

Im guessing Deep Fried Aubergines lol. As for the t-shirt..er...<deleted> indeed!!!

I'd love a t-shirt like that. You could have a whole series defing all sorts of nasty complaints. How about:

syphilis

a sexually transmitted disease, spread by bacteria and progressing if untreated from infection of the genitals to the bones, muscles, and brain.

Oh, don't ger me started...

I think that most of you may have heard about this one already, but here goes:

The mystery of Ireland's worst driver

Details of how police in the Irish Republic finally caught up with the country's most reckless driver have emerged, the Irish Times reports.

He had been wanted from counties Cork to Cavan after racking up scores of speeding tickets and parking fines.

However, each time the serial offender was stopped he managed to evade justice by giving a different address.

But then his cover was blown.

It was discovered that the man every member of the Irish police's rank and file had been looking for - a Mr Prawo Jazdy - wasn't exactly the sort of prized villain whose apprehension leads to an officer winning an award.

In fact he wasn't even human.

"Prawo Jazdy is actually the Polish for driving licence and not the first and surname on the licence," read a letter from June 2007 from an officer working within the Garda's traffic division.

"Having noticed this, I decided to check and see how many times officers have made this mistake.

"It is quite embarrassing to see that the system has created Prawo Jazdy as a person with over 50 identities."

The officer added that the "mistake" needed to be rectified immediately and asked that a memo be circulated throughout the force.

In a bid to avoid similar mistakes being made in future relevant guidelines were also amended.

And if nothing else is learnt from this driving-related debacle, Irish police officers should now know at least two words of Polish.

As for the seemingly elusive Mr Prawo Jazdy, he has presumably become a cult hero among Ireland's second largest immigrant population.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/norther...and/7899171.stm

Brilliant!

Love it!

I've avoided justice a few times, and no doubt missed a few things, because my surname could also be used as a Christian name, something like Keith Richard.

I doubt Keef has missed out on much though.

One of my favourite signs in Phnom Phen advertising English lessons was:

"Get head, learn English"

I signed up immediately

CB

One of my favourite signs in Phnom Phen advertising English lessons was:

"Get head, learn English"

I signed up immediately

CB

Back in the time of the Shah, Shiraz was a delightful town to live in.

The Australian meat shop was next to the Count Hotel, but somehow the 'o' had been dropped from the hotel sign. So any new family arriving were given explicit direction as to where the best meat was to be found.

Also, on the road leading to the Shah's summer palace, was a KFC, where the final panel of the fascia had been broken, so the place happily advertised it's "Finger Lickin' Goo" which was not inappropriate.

Great anecdote. Pity you don't have pics.

(That's not scepticism.....just that pics of the Count Hotel without the "O" would have been precious.)

There's a thread in the CR forum where laughing at a Google Translator rendition of a website has dismayed a local business owner.

Hopefully fixed now though. See Chaliang Cafe.

Sounds good...I'll check it out.

There's a thread in the CR forum where laughing at a Google Translator rendition of a website has dismayed a local business owner.

Hopefully fixed now though. See Chaliang Cafe.

I thought well responded to by both parties. Good result....and humour noted.

Nice one.

I think THIS is a more appropriate spelling for the word "Lawyer"

Further to the above image....

They mean well but it comes out odd in the translation. Note item #122

They mean well but it comes out odd in the translation. Note item #122

Yes - 60 baht is much too cheap for fried, sun-dried serpent head.

And why is iced coffee (or any of their other drinks) more expensive than the hot version.

And if I can have a choice of iced/hot coffee - why not the same for Coca Cola?