Translations Gone Wrong

Translations Gone Wrong Monday April 18, 2011 By: Gina Roman My early morning wake up was very unexpected as I worked the entire weekend. Last Thursday one of my clients requested a translation of a 34 page legal document, an “Acta de Asamblea General Extraordinaria de Accionistas,” Minutes of Extraordinary Shareholders Meeting. Legal documents always leave me very energy and mentally drained, they suck up all my brain cells because the terminology used is like a whole new language in both English and Spanish, more so in Spanish because of the fact that people in México use too many words. Many times I’d say they are unnecessary words. Every time I skim through a legal document a get a good laugh or I end up with a huge question mark above my head, for example in México (I don’t know if in other parts of Latin America as well) contracts “are celebrated,” “se celebra este contrato,” meaning, “this contract is held.” When one thinks of the word, “celebrar,” the first image that comes to mind is a party as in a festivity, not as in a political party.
Sometimes the use of so many words in Spanish can lead to awful translations to English and other languages. For example, earlier this year I got this ten day contract to translate a company procedures manual from Spanish to English in which I hired three people to help me out. It turned out very counterproductive in the end because English was none of the Translators’ native language so needless to say the work turned out into a mess, I had to hire someone else to edit their work which I had to pay from my pocket and of course I lost the client. Now I know what NOT to do in the future. That reminds me of one time when I went to Cancun, I saw this huge sign at the airport that read like this, “Feel yourself at home.” In Spanish we say, “Sientete en casa,” “Sientete,” is the equivalent of “Feel.” Very frequently people claim to be Translators or they translate to a language that is not their native language which is when odd things come up. When I completed a certification at the Organización Mexicana de Traductores, http://www.omt.org.mx/we came across many hilarious things, my classmates and I made many silly mistakes. One day we were translating a recipe for a Thanksgiving Turkey from English to Spanish and we thought “piece of cake!” but NO WAY! The damn recipe turned out to be a lot harder than expected. One of my classmates got a small sentence that read “Insert the bird…..” as soon as the rest of us read the sentence we immediately predicted what she was going to say in Spanish so we were hoping she wouldn’t but it was too late. She said, “meta el pájaro,” in Spanish “pájaro” is a slang word for Dick. It was one of the most hilarious translating experiences, our instructor was the only man in class surrounded by women and his entire body blushed. In more than ten years of translating and interpreting experience I’ve seen too many things. Many times the real meaning of the text gets lost in translation. I found some excellent examples: Translationg Gone Wrong http://www.tallrite.com/LightRelief/AdvertisingSlogans.htmThese are the nominees for the Chevy Nova Award. This is (said to be) given out in honor of GM's fiasco in trying to market the Nova car in Central and South America. "No va" in Spanish means, "It Doesn't Go". 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?" Coors put its slogan, "Turn It Loose," into Spanish, where it was read as "Suffer From Diarrhea." Scandinavian vacuum manufacturer Electrolux used the following in an American campaign: "Nothing Sucks like an Electrolux." Clairol introduced the "Mist Stick," a curling iron, into Germany only to find out that "mist" is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the "Manure Stick." When Gerber started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as in the US, with the smiling baby on the label. Later they learned that in Africa, companies routinely put pictures on the labels of what's inside, since many people can't read. Colgate introduced a toothpaste in France called Cue, the name of a notorious porno magazine. 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). Pepsi's "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation" translated into "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back From the Grave" in Chinese. 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 "kokoukole", translating into "Happiness in the Mouth." 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." When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to have read, "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you." The company thought that the word "embarazar" (to impregnate) meant to embarrass, so the ad read: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant!" 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!