translatorenthusiast

[translatorenthusiast]

Have you been to the San Francisco Zoo lately? It’s lovely BUT do not try to use one of the keys to listen to the Spanish narration at each talk box they have outside the animals, they are dreadful. I’m quite surprise that they would not take the time and effort to hire a professional to do the translations. They are clearly done in house and very badly. Here are some highlights:

- the Spanish “narrators” speak without punctuation. Basically, it seems as if they do not breath and are trying to finish a sentence as fast as possible.

- they whisper in Spanish. It’s my native tongue and it was sooo hard to follow and sometimes not possible to understand what the “narrator” was saying.

- And lastly, there were some words that had the intonation on the wrong syllable! really?

Please San Francisco Zoo, a bit more respect to your Spanish speaking visitors and hire a professional to do the translations =)

[translatorenthusiast]

Have you been to the San Francisco Zoo lately? It’s lovely BUT do not try to use one of the keys to listen to the Spanish narration at each talk box they have outside the animals, they are dreadful. I’m quite surprise that they would not take the time and effort to hire a professional to do the translations. They are clearly done in house and very badly. Here are some highlights:

- the Spanish “narrators” speak without punctuation. Basically, it seems as if they do not breath and are trying to finish a sentence as fast as possible.

- they whisper in Spanish. It’s my native tongue and it was sooo hard to follow and sometimes not possible to understand what the “narrator” was saying.

- And lastly, there were some words that had the intonation on the wrong syllable! really?

Please San Francisco Zoo, a bit more respect to your Spanish speaking visitors and hire a professional to do the translations =)

[translatorenthusiast]

The BELOVED Daniel The Tiger...If you have kids, you might know this little cute tiger (that my son confused for a teddy bear for a while! yes, he is that cute!)...Unfortunately, when you have Spanish captions on some of the episodes the translations don’t necessarily convey the exact meaning intended...How it pained me to find this out! I hope the makers of Daniel the Tiger will correct this, as this is one of my favorite cartoons. If you haven’t checked this cartoon out, give it a try! It teaches useful lessons for the little one in your house =)

[translatorenthusiast]

At the doctors....

When you reach your appointment and right away it hits you! smack! Big no no translation mistake!

The Spanish translation reads: please have your card and identification ready….which lacks a few details but overall gets the message across. BUT the big no no is the “Y”…in proper Spanish language rules you never use “Y” before and “i”…you always use “E”…there you have it! Proof that though many can translate, few have proper grammar knowledge to do it accurately.

[translatorenthusiast]

At the doctors....

When you reach your appointment and right away it hits you! smack! Big no no translation mistake!

The Spanish translation reads: please have your card and identification ready....which lacks a few details but overall gets the message across. BUT the big no no is the “Y”...in proper Spanish language rules you never use “Y” before and “i”...you always use “E”...there you have it! Proof that though many can translate, few have proper grammar knowledge to do it accurately.

[translatorenthusiast]

Have we gone too cheap?

We all get those inserts that come with new forms, applications, etc that have varied languages translated in them right? You usually toss them because you don’t need to read another language. But what about the person that DOES need to understand what this new form is all about? And, what IF the translation is well…wrong!? Exhibit A above!

There are several mistakes in this translation. The title doesn’t even begin to explain that this is a new form even though the word new is in the title. The familiar term (tu) and the formal term (usted) are used interchangeably on the form making no sense to the reader. You either address someone formally or informally, but not both. The plurals, the adjectives.... all are placed incorrectly.

In short this translation is one of the worst I have seen. It would be good to communicate what we want to communicate to those we are trying to help, because otherwise, why waste resources?

So the question is: Have we gone too cheap? Can’t organizations hire proper translation help? But, let’s not pretend we are filling the blank by helping because this is not communicating at all. Are organizations using real translators or are they using “in-house” “bilingual” staff to translate documents to avoid extra costs? I think the later.

‘nough said! ;) Happy Monday!

#healthforms #cheap #badtranslation #poortranslation #translationgonewrong

[translatorenthusiast]

Your Success Here!?

I have to confess that I did not encounter this rather amusing sign, but I couldn’t resist sharing! because this is precisely my point all along...when people try to go cheap with inexpensive translations or ask their bilingual employees for help without making sure those bilingual employees know their parent’s tongue properly...well..exhibit A happens! 

The Exit only sign all of a sudden...promises you to achieve success here!! at the Exit of Starbucks! ; ) LOL

[translatorenthusiast]

BOOSTER SEAT AN ELEVATOR???

Recently we bought my son a second “spare” car seat. This time I wasn’t really looking into what the box said. That is, until I decided to check out the difference between this seat and the one he is using already.

This could be a very controversial translation, but when you translate the word “booster seat” to “asiento elevador”, not every Spanish speaking country will accept this translation as it just doesn’t make sense to translate “booster seat” to be “elevator seat”...Now, some might argue that it does make sense, but I would prefer a more “proper” translation and a more widely accepted term for booster seat.

The word I would use would be either “asiento elevado” or “alzador”. Simply because anywhere you go, this WILL make perfect sense, while the term “elevator”...well....though you will get your point across, might make some people make fun of the manufacturer for a poor translation job!

[translatorenthusiast]

Sometimes in the small print....

....You find the simplest and most common translation mistakes. Words that get “made up” and don’t exist, but since we switch back and forth from Spanish to English, English to Spanish...well, after a while, some people end up with Spanglish instead of English or Spanish. Here is a perfect example of what I mean ;) 

In this example, the word ‘distincto’ does not exist. The right translation for distinctive would be ‘distintivo’, ‘caracteristico’ or ‘particular’. If you pay close attention the wrong translated word “distincto” has a close resemblance to the word “distinctivite”. The words are similar, which starts creating a ‘blurry’ resemblance of what we actually mean.... and well at some point they just get meshed together and voila! a new word that doesn’t exist makes it into a magazine!

[translatorenthusiast]

Do plants consume humans?

I’ve been walking for years around my city, mostly in hike trails, I love the exercise, the scenery and just being outside. This is an example of a sign that always makes me chuckle when I encounter it. I thought it might make you chuckle too! 

First error: Aguas no potable. The first word is a plural paired with a singular. It should say: Agua no potable.

The second error (and the funniest!) is “las plantas no son para consumir humano”, This means “the plants are not to consume humans”…I don’t think they really meant to imply the big huge eating plants from our childhood stories actually do exist! lol  The third error is using the word “llamer” which doesn’t exist. The real words is spelled “llamar”. There you have it! Who wouldn’t known that such a small sign contained so many errors…but it’s quite possible!

[translatorenthusiast]

Do plants consume humans?

I’ve been walking for years around my city, mostly in hike trails, I love the exercise, the scenery and just being outside. This is an example of a sign that always makes me chuckle when I encounter it. I thought it might make you chuckle too! 

First error: Aguas no potable. The first word is a plural paired with a singular. It should say: Agua no potable.

The second error (and the funniest!) is “las plantas no son para consumir humano”, This means “the plants are not to consume humans”...I don’t think they really meant to imply the big huge eating plants from our childhood stories actually do exist! lol  The third error is using the word “llamer” which doesn't exist. The real words is spelled “llamar”. There you have it! Who wouldn’t known that such a small sign contained so many errors...but it’s quite possible!

[translatorenthusiast]

This was translated in the children’s book to say; “raise your feet”. Yes, from the image, this could be a possible description, but it’s not a good translation for ‘kick your legs’. The proper translation could would be “Patea”, or “Patea con tus piernas” or “Patea con tus pies”. 

The children’s book translated this to say in Spanish: “Play like this”. Again, this could be a good interpretation if you were describing the picture, but not if you are translating it. ‘Play like this’ doesn’t mean ‘push the blocks’!

Well, there you have it. A very simple and cute example. A cute book, but don’t believe everything you read ;)

Till another post where I’ll share more finds!

Night night everyone. This mom will stop blogging for today.

How not to teach your child to be bilingual . . .

As a new mom, and as a Latin mom of course, my one desire is to teach my son Spanish. I want him to be perfectly bilingual. He will learn proper Spanish from me, and proper English from his dad. At least that is my goal ;)

Well, what better way to teach your son to be bilingual than with bilingual books, right? Well…not so much. At least you can’t assume this all the time.

I’m surprised by the number of books I’ve seen with wrong translations. Or maybe call them sloppy translations. What I don’t understand is why translating a few words or sentences in a book geared towards toddlers is so difficult. You would think they would translate accordingly right?

Below you will find a few examples:

[translatorenthusiast]

Spanish Language Bloopers

Where to start? Over the years I’ve seen many bloopers. You would be surprised how many. I’ve seen poor translation from English to Spanish in places you would never expect to, like the doctor’s office.

But then again, who is perfect and who doesn’t make mistakes? Right? However…I believe mistakes can be corrected…and I’m still wondering why some of these bloopers are still out there and never get corrected. Perhaps nobody has pointed them out or perhaps nobody notices. 

This blog is about sharing the bloopers I encounter as I go about my daily living…and how silly they are sometimes, and what they actually say!