Bloodsoaked flawless fatal victory (translation version)

Posted on July 31, 2012 by The Old Wolf

Translation can be funny. Spend a career in and around the industry, and you hear all the jokes. The disasters. The catastrophes.

Translation students invariably hear the story of the interpreter (or the computer, depending on which version of the apocryphal story is told) who rendered “The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak” into Russian as “The wine is good, but the meat is rotten.”

Some bad translations have long passed into legend: “The lift is being repaired today. During this time we regret you will be unbearable.” – supposedly seen on an elevator in Hungary, or Japan, or any number of other places. One can find endless lists of these on the internet, and while some are obvious fabrications, others are true because one does see such abominations out there; assembly instructions for products from the Orient used to be notoriously bad back in the 70’s, and engrish.com is still a font of amusement if you want to see bad translation work.

Let a computer do your translation for you, and you can embarrass yourself and your entire nation:

If you don’t understand the results you’re getting, it’s dangerous to use automated translation – what the original restaurant name was supposed to be, no one will ever know.

The same goes for emails, if you don’t speak the language you’re dealing with:

This particular sign didn’t last long, as soon as the city council members discovered what had happened.

And then, in the midst of all the hilarity, one encounters brilliance.

Now, since I use Firefox with Adblock Plus and F.B. Purity, I never see ads on the Internet, but many folks aren’t so lucky.

I’ve got more to say about the Açaí berry scam (stay tuned), but you still see these ads, and thousands like them, all over the internet. And, these ads need to be translated for other language markets. Given that the preponderance of these Facebook and Google ads are 100% bullcrap, it’s easy to see why an ethical individual would soon tire of committing electronic fraud. One Finnish translator decided to go out in a blaze of glory.

Here’s what the ad looked like:

But if you’re Finnish, this is what you’d be seeing:

Like a boss!

The Old Wolf has spoken.

Betty Crocker, by Betty Crocker

Posted on July 24, 2012 by The Old Wolf

“Early 1950s era commercial for Betty Crocker Spice Cake Mix….hosted by Betty, in person!! From 1949-64, the fictional Crocker, was played by actress Adelaide Hawley (born Dieta Adelaide Fish), who had studied piano and voice at the Eastman School of Music at the University of Rochester before entering vaudeville. From 1937 to 1950 she hosted THE ADELAIDE HAWLEY PROGRAM, a daily talk and new program that reached an audience of over 3 three million daily. So popular was Ms. Hawley as General Mills’ living trademark, she was was considered one of the “most recognizable women in America”, second only to Eleanor Roosevelt. After being dropped by General Mills, she returned to school and earned a diociorate in speech education from New York University in 1967. She moved to the Pacific Northwest with her second husband, Naval Commander Laurence Gordon Cumming and taught English as a second language until her death in 1998 at age 93.”

Text from the YouTube page. Found at Frog Blog.

No wonder little girls want to be sexy

Posted on July 19, 2012 by The Old Wolf

An article in the Huffington Post explores a study published online in the Sex Roles journal. Of greatest interest was a slideshow illustrating some toy lines which have, over time, morphed themselves into a “sexier, girlier” version.

Lego

Holly Hobbie

Candy Land

Strawberry Shortcake

Rainbow Brite

My Little Pony

Trollz

Cabbage Patch Kids

Lisa Frank

I have no brief with any of these toys in particular, other than to illustrate a general trend. What I do have a real problem with is this:

Bad enough that the Bratz line was sexualizing 8-year-olds; now they’re zooming in on the infants, and this comes right up to the line of catering to pedophiles. I’m astonished that an abomination like this made it anywhere near an American shelf.

Children need to be allowed a childhood. The way things are going, layettes will someday include infant bikinis and makeup. {Note: Don’t point me to websites that are already advertising such things. There must be some rule of the internet that says “if you’ve imagined it, someone has already done it.”}

The Old Wolf has spoken.

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