When does mistranslation become dystranslation? Dys as in dysfunctional or dysentery. It’s a slippery slope. Most of the time, a bad translation is just plain bad, but sometimes bad gets baroque, especially once you get a ministry or two involved. Looks like that may be the case of a trade agreement translation gone south in South […]

When does prank translation cross the line? When the prank’s on you. But when it happens to Dylan Zéroosiix’s little brother, apparently un petit jerk on Facebook, it’s LOL, especially since it’s such a clever hack of Facebook’s volunteer (amateur) translation tool. Adrian Chen reported on Gawker.com that a menu on Facebook’s French language version […]

The latest Chinese translation of The Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales was recalled after outraged parents complained that the X-rated content was not suitable for children. As reported in China Global Times, in the version published by China Media Time, Snow White crosses the incest line to carry on with her father, also mixing it up with […]

Are you a CTP? That’s “Certified Translation Professional” to industry insiders. And I guess you’ve got to be pretty inside, because I just heard about it while trolling for blog fodder on this lazy Friday afternoon. “The Certified Translation Professional (CTP) Program is a 100% online based translator training and certification program which can be […]

“If you’re not a monkey, stop working for peanuts!” say the guys at No Peanuts! for Translators, which provides “support and resources to professional translators and interpreters in demanding and receiving a living wage for their work.” “No Peanuts! means refusing to believe that translators are powerless. No Peanuts! means rejecting the notion that translators must kowtow […]

In France, the sun revolves around the earth. This according to the audience of Qui veut gagner des millions, the French version of the game show, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Regardless of the country it’s shot in, the show follows the same insufferable format: contestants answer multiple choice questions that get harder and […]

Talk about the ultimate translation fail. In the most important moral teaching of Western civilization, two out of ten commandments have been mistranslated for centuries, according to Dr. Joel M. Hoffman, a Bible scholar and linguist who has applied modern translation techniques to the Bible. “Perhaps more than any other part of the Bible, the […]

Japanese moviegoers have been avid Hollywood fans for generations. An entire industry exists to groom American films for Japanese audiences. As soon as the Americans send over a reel, these Japanese marketing tigers pounce on the title of the film, which rarely survives as Americans know it.  The title has to catch the attention of […]

I promised that I would try to make this blog interesting. In that spirit, it’s only right to begin by quoting obscure translation poetry. Actually, I guess it’s not too obscure, since it appears to appear in a zillion postings on the Web (just did a Google search). So let’s call it an old chestnut […]