Amusing Anecdotes & Insinuating Innuendos

There are more than enough pitfalls to contend with - including spelling! Here are some gems taken from our experience. Crap machine Yes, you did read right, but why this unfortunate rendering? A crucial letter “w” was missing from a German instruction manual, turning a “Schweißmaschine” [welding machine] into a “Scheißmaschine” [crap machine]. We spotted the mistake straight away and were able to save our customer further embarrassment. Kraut und Kräuter The famous Swabian Filder-Kraut is rendered as “cabbage from the Filder region”, so how would a machine translation tool translate “Kräuter”? Needless to say, it would come up with cabbages, resulting in a baffling mistranslation. You would have known that the “Kräuter” used to season the cabbage are called “herbs” in English. Offensive strategy Every marketing manager can tell you a thing or two about this... Indeed, what did we find in a translation used by a large group of companies where English is the official language but the German “offensive Strategie” [aggressive strategy] translated literally into English as “offensive strategy”? It sounds entirely plausible, doesn’t it? No! The English word “offensive” actually corresponds to the German word “beleidigend”. So beware of the “beleidigende Strategie”! Urine stinks Anyone taking a brief excursus into the world of psychology can quickly get out of his or her depth. Let’s take the harmless German expression “Urinstinkt” [primary instinct]. How should it be hyphenated at the end of a line without affecting the meaning? Certainly not in the way suggested by the automatic spell-check - “Urin-stinkt” - and just one step away from the fatal mistranslation “urine stinks”. Leading edge technology What do you think of the translation “Führungskante” [guide edge]? No problem - every engineer knows what this means - but “Führungskanten-Technologie” [guide edge technology] is entirely wide of the mark. In this case the human translator has to outwit the software because the German “Spitzentechnologie” is required and not the translation suggested by the software. Bauer-Wartungsland Our headline - literally “farmer maintenance country” - makes no sense? No, it certainly doesn’t! Where on earth would you find a country where farmers go for their annual service?! The word should read “Bau-Erwartungsland” which, when hyphenated correctly, means land set aside for building. Only a good translator will not fall into this trap. Power Safe or Power Save Things can get really tricky with specifications from the high-tech world, where the translator has to demonstrate the prowess of an electronics specialist. Does this term refer to data protection for a Nokia Communicator or energy-saving mode? The “f” or “v” is absolutely critical here. Letting loose und Loser Beware: If you let your dog off the lead, there is only one letter between loosing your dog and losing your faithful companion - and making you a sad loser - like the poor creature on our photo, slinking off with your tail between your legs and making do with the cat basket while puss usurps your place and wins the day ...

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