zoidberg
Well-Known Member
The Nodusfactory ads for sailboat gear are 'interesting', to say the least...
'Loses something in translation'
- Thread starter zoidberg
- Start date
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Wow! I correct academic documents written in English by researchers whose first language isn't English, so I've seen some pretty wild stuff at times - but never anything as opaque as that! Does anyone have any idea what they meant to say?
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
There's a whole bundle of them showing up in the Facebook 'Shorts'. All those I've seen have something similar.... as if they'd used a primitive Large Language Model AI to churn out mis-translations in several languages.
I'm reminded of Officer Crabtree in 'Allo 'Allo....
RunAgroundHard
Well-Known Member
A guess. Iron on fabric patches that can be cut to size, which glue on or can be stitched in place.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
We have an expression for poor English Manuals that were supplied with RC Radios such as the old FlySky 9x :
"Chinglish"
One particular section talked about avoiding "heart attack' by use of the trim buttons .....
"Chinglish"
One particular section talked about avoiding "heart attack' by use of the trim buttons .....
Stemar
Well-Known Member
Well, I can see how getting the trim wrong on an expensive RC plane you've spent ages building could lead to a heart attack...
Neeves
Well-Known Member
What do you call a man who speaks 3 languages. Trilingual
What do you call a man who speaks 2 languages. Bilingual
What do you call a man who speaks 1 language. An Englishman
Recounted by a young Asian, from HK, who was fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, French and German and was Technical Manager employed by a German pharmaceutical company
Jonathan
What do you call a man who speaks 2 languages. Bilingual
What do you call a man who speaks 1 language. An Englishman
Recounted by a young Asian, from HK, who was fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin, English, French and German and was Technical Manager employed by a German pharmaceutical company
Jonathan
flaming
Well-Known Member
Especially odd given I had a very long chat with Nodus at Mets, and their English was probably better than mine.
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
Several of my younger relatives are multilingual; it goes with the territory for Hong Kongers. The older generation (i.e. my generation) tend to be bilingual. The official languages are Cantonese, Mandarin and English; there was a period, now past, when Mandarin was compulsory in schools, but there was so much resistance that it was dropped. But it's still a usual skill. Mandarin and Cantonese are NOT mutually comprehensible; the similarities are roughly comparable to those between Dutch and German. The most impressive has German, Cantonese, Mandarin and English (at least) - she may have Japanese as well. And she can switch languages almost mid-sentence. Makes my English, schoolboy French, a bit of Latin and Classical Greek (the latter three are NOT coversational; French could be with practice, as it once was!) look a bit thin.
Refueler
Well-Known Member
Come over here and you can have two people talking to each other .... one speaking Latvian - other speaking Russian ... the two languages are really different .. but they chat away !
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Howzabout a backwoods Glaswegian seeking driving directions from a Brummager in Inner Liverpool....?
thinwater
Well-Known Member
Correction. "A man who speaks 1 language" is American. We do have a variety of dialects, some or which are challenging.
In fact, like Antartic Pilot, I got started writing by correcting both engineering and corporate division documents in the wake of a European merger. I was not tasked with this, it was just necessary for my reports to read them! I spoke the mother tongue of the European company badly, but well enough to understand the errors in idiom. Honestly, I didn't mind, because they were doing their best to speak a second language.
But yeah, some of the on-line translators are fun to watch.
zoidberg
Well-Known Member
Here's one I tripped over earlier....
AntarcticPilot
Well-Known Member
I find the Clydeside accent "challenging", especially when trying to talk to someone who's working out on a pontoon with a dodgy mobile connection! And true Geordie is almost a foreign language, but thankfully confined to a very small region. Northumbrian is fine (my dad was from Northumberland, but didn't speak with that accent - but he sang all the old folk songs), but there's a vast difference between Northumbrian and Geordie; my dad steadfastly denied being Geordie, despite coming from a place only a few miles from Newcastle.
Neeves
Well-Known Member
We were in Greenock and booked into the Holiday Inn. Josephine went to check in I looked at the local tourist leaflets to try to find somewhere to eat (I was unsuccessful). Josephine interrupted my search almost in tears saying she could not understand a word except that a nearby Indian Restaurant was offering free meals. I knew, cannot imagine how, she had misunderstood smomething. I went and completed check in to turn round to find Josephine standing in open mouth amazement that I was able to understand the young lady and reply with the same, Glaswegian, accent. Later I held a long conversation with a Geology student, another your lady, at Fossil Grove who had done the same Geology course as me. Later still I was challenged by a rather rotund female security guard and my linguistic skills became mixed (I never worked out what I had said) when she accused me of trying to bribe her such that I could gain access to the docks (it amazing where anchors can take you). and the Waverly.
I was brought up east of Stirling but spent a happy time at Glasgow University then worked at John G Stein Head Office at Castlecary.
I can break into Glaswegian at the drop of a hat (or a telephone call from one of my sisters). My 'daily' accent is not strong, but detectable - when I'm queried simply say that like many Scots I'm well educated and that the broad accent is simply a caricature, think Porridge.
When criticised for my lack of understanding or either Cantonese or Mandarin I have to remind the interlocutor I had certificated access to a sleeping dictionary.
Jonathan
I was brought up east of Stirling but spent a happy time at Glasgow University then worked at John G Stein Head Office at Castlecary.
I can break into Glaswegian at the drop of a hat (or a telephone call from one of my sisters). My 'daily' accent is not strong, but detectable - when I'm queried simply say that like many Scots I'm well educated and that the broad accent is simply a caricature, think Porridge.
When criticised for my lack of understanding or either Cantonese or Mandarin I have to remind the interlocutor I had certificated access to a sleeping dictionary.
Jonathan