| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] | Off topic: Restaurant menu translation problems! Thread poster: Catharine Cellier-Smart
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| Reclaiming your goat | Sep 4, 2012 |
I'm glad I'm not the only person who collects menu translations. Like Eulaliana, I've also come across "believed ham" ( café in Avignon). Another favourite is "goat's expenses" (brasserie in Amboise). Fresh goat's cheese (chèvre frais) anyone?
| | | | Mark Bossanyi 
Bulgaria
Local time: 02:38
Member (2008)
French to English
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| Menus and speech recognition | Sep 4, 2012 |
When it comes to heroic translation failures, restaurant menus are certainly a promising field, offering us such irresistible appetisers as "Fried babies of squids", "Cheese under cover", "Chicken spit", "Beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion", etc. (from my collection).
However, as dedicated scholars in our field, we should perhaps not overlook the growing potential of speech recognition software: "call a fight" (qualified); "humour slayer" (humus layer); "waist d... See more When it comes to heroic translation failures, restaurant menus are certainly a promising field, offering us such irresistible appetisers as "Fried babies of squids", "Cheese under cover", "Chicken spit", "Beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion", etc. (from my collection).
However, as dedicated scholars in our field, we should perhaps not overlook the growing potential of speech recognition software: "call a fight" (qualified); "humour slayer" (humus layer); "waist deep position" (waste deposition); "Crime Minister" for Prime Minister (no Freudian slip intended), etc., etc.
There's a whole parallel universe out there... ▲ Collapse
| | | | | mostly a case of word-for-word translation gone bad | Sep 4, 2012 |
Lori Cirefice wrote:
Descriptions of food at the breakfast buffet - honestly almost everything was cracking me up, but I didn't have enough paper to write it all down:
- butterfly scales (I can't remember what it actually was - it was a few years ago)
- thousand island juice (yep, definitely salad dressing)
- salad jam (another kind of salad dressing)
- fried steak (I think it was bacon actually?)
- lettuce salad (duh!)
- chicken (beef) intestines (Isn't sausage usually pork? Are chicken intestines really big enough to make sausage? I decided not to taste after all!)
The funny thing was that nothing at the buffet was anything I would normally eat for breakfast.
The 2nd, 3rd, 5th and 6th are all cases of word-for-word translation gone bad. In Chinese, the word for sausage (when it occurs in compounds) is also the word for intestines…
| | | | Éva Méh
Local time: 01:38
French to Hungarian
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| Jam -> Marmalade | Sep 4, 2012 |
I wonder what induced someone to translate the Hungarian word "Jam" (which is English anyway) as "Marmalade"... you can't get more help with your translation than actually having to translate an English word into English
And another beautiful bit:
"Dear our Guests! Current cake our supply in the counter can be found. We ask it let it be looked at."
(not machine translation, does not match ent... See more I wonder what induced someone to translate the Hungarian word "Jam" (which is English anyway) as "Marmalade"... you can't get more help with your translation than actually having to translate an English word into English
And another beautiful bit:
"Dear our Guests! Current cake our supply in the counter can be found. We ask it let it be looked at."
(not machine translation, does not match entirely with HU version)
...all this in a high-profile downtown café. Love you Budapest
[Modifié le 2012-09-04 20:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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| constipated potatoes | Sep 4, 2012 |
You can be served constipated potatoes in Bulgaria (запечени картофи) instead of slightly roasted ones. I've seen it at least two times, which makes me wonder how they manage to be so consistent in absurd translations.
| | | | longa
Spanish to English
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| Dress or Drink? | Sep 6, 2012 |
Well, I must confess. Many years ago when I had only been in Japan for a matter of weeks and knew virtually nothing about the language, I was asked by a local cafe owner to help him reformat (not translate) his menu. While using IME to match the phonetics to the correct kanji, I accidentally came up with kimono (着物) instead of nomimono (飲物). For those of you not in the know, kimono is a traditional garb while nomimono means drink. They had a good laugh and I a deep draught from the r... See more Well, I must confess. Many years ago when I had only been in Japan for a matter of weeks and knew virtually nothing about the language, I was asked by a local cafe owner to help him reformat (not translate) his menu. While using IME to match the phonetics to the correct kanji, I accidentally came up with kimono (着物) instead of nomimono (飲物). For those of you not in the know, kimono is a traditional garb while nomimono means drink. They had a good laugh and I a deep draught from the rancid pitcher of humiliation.
There are many mistranslations here, of course. My personal favorite is a butcher's shop in Takasaki-city which reads in bold letters over the shop: MEET MARKET. I guess the girls are especially easy in Takasaki? ▲ Collapse
| | | | Ioana Costache
Romania
Local time: 02:38
Member (2007)
English to Romanian
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Romanian "crap" [krap] = English "(common) carp" (Cyprinus carpio). But the restaurant decided to leave it "as is"... they did the same with the "somon" (obviously "salmon") below. The trout fared better, though.
The capers got lost in translation altogether (they were supposed to go with the "boiled trout", which must be some approximation of broiled trout). And the "corn husks" should have been plain old cornmeal. One needs a sense of adventure ... See more
| | | | | Belching dishes | Sep 6, 2012 |
In my last job as an internal translator, we were sent a menu already in ‘English’ to ‘check’ for the proprietor (one of those who thinks he “kan English”). His menu offered a farmer’s omelette but unfortunately the word boeren in Dutch can be the verb ‘to burp’ as well as the compounded (or plural) form of the noun ‘farmer’. A bit of nifty dictionary work — verb definitions are listed before nouns, of course — and the chap had come up with ‘belch omelette.’
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mebchicago
United States
Local time: 16:38
German to English
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| Vegetable savagery | Sep 11, 2012 |
Shopping at a supermarket in Chicago a few years ago, one catering largely to various immigrant ethnic groups (Eastern Europeans, Africans, Hispanics, etc.), I came across a sign in the vegetable section: "Fresh Romanian Hearts -- $1.99".
Upon closer inspection, these turned out to be hearts of romaine lettuce...
| | | | | More from Chile. | Sep 13, 2012 |
Luciano Vera wrote:
Here in Chile one of the most typical and popular foods is seafood and among them there is a mussel called as "choro zapato" (the mussel has many names according the country; in Chile is "choro", in Spain "mejillón").
Well, I remember have reading a menu from some local restaurant of my city (Santiago) and they translated everything literally, including the above mussel and it was translated as...choro shoe! I don´t know exactly the reason of its name but from what I heard it´s due its size.
But it doesn´t over here, there´s another popular seafood called "loco", similar to the abalone, and in the menu it was also translated in the same way ("loco" means "crazy")!
I can´t imagine the facial expression of the foreign customers who read the menu and realize that some of the local dishes include as ingredients shoes and crazy mussels.
| | | | | More from Chile. | Sep 13, 2012 |
Luciano Vera wrote:
Here in Chile one of the most typical and popular foods is seafood and among them there is a mussel called as "choro zapato" (the mussel has many names according the country; in Chile is "choro", in Spain "mejillón").
Well, I remember have reading a menu from some local restaurant of my city (Santiago) and they translated everything literally, including the above mussel and it was translated as...choro shoe! I don´t know exactly the reason of its name but from what I heard it´s due its size.
But it doesn´t over here, there´s another popular seafood called "loco", similar to the abalone, and in the menu it was also translated in the same way ("loco" means "crazy")!
I can´t imagine the facial expression of the foreign customers who read the menu and realize that some of the local dishes include as ingredients shoes and crazy mussels.
The word for abalone is loco (locos are not mussels) - so we get fresh crazies in green sauce.
| | | | Ian Graham
Belgium
Local time: 01:38
Danish to English
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| Polished translation | Jul 6, 2017 |
A photo I stumble across from time to time on the Net shows a Canadian package labelled "Polish Sausage" for the benefit of English-speakers, while the order to French-speakers is "Polissez la Saucisse".
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Ian Graham
Belgium
Local time: 01:38
Danish to English
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| Population control | Jul 6, 2017 |
To be fair, English has its oddities too. Not a few tourists have been shocked by a sign on British meat shops: "Family Butchers".
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