Hahaha vene, loved this link, my favourite is the Paris dress shop

I bought a plastic cutting board a while back, and chose the one I did in order to have the flyer that was attached. "It is our pleasure of the most height to offer you this product most excellent, for your expert cutting experiences"

I've meant to post the site below for some time. If I'm remembering correctly, it was first published, by "Doonesbury" cartoonist Gary Trudeau in TIME magazine a number of years ago.

Just to pique your interest, it's called: "I am a Tip-Top Starlet: In Which Something is Lost, but Much is Gained, in the Translation."

I was reminded of this piece by a site my mother sent me, one illustrating efforts by the Chinese to prepare for an onslaught of English speakers at the upcoming Beijing Olympics. I will not post that site because I do not wish to be accused of political incorrectness, but I have to say that it had me and my husband laughing helplessly.

The "New Yorker" magazine used to run an occasional feature called "The Mysterious East" and showcasing problematic translations from Chinese, Japanese, and Korean into English. I think that the feature was yet another victim of political correctness, but I have to admit that I miss it.

Today's (July 6, 2008) issue of the "New York Times Book Review" contains on its inner back page some very funny (or very frustrating, depending on your point of view) examples of literary translation problems. Worth reading.

http://www.netjaunt.com/thinkinghurts/MADonna.txt

Oh, that is good! This didn't fall too far from the actual when she was asked: "What was your book [censored] about?" The censored word was the variance on a *loose woman*.

I have a funny story about a translation error. Well, not so much an error, just a misunderstanding. I had a friend from Brazil who introduced me to one of her friends who couldn't speak a great deal of english. That day we were deciding where to eat when I suggested a place that sold bruschetta. Apparently in portuguese that word sounds like a reference to female genitalia! So when I asked everyone if they wanted bruschetta, the Brazilian who did not know english (or french for that matter) blushed and roared with laughter!

Oh, dear.

Much may depend on how you pronounce "bruschetta." It's an Italian word, and the "ch" in Italian is correctly pronounced with a "k" sound: "broos-KET-tah," more or less.

However, here in the U.S., many people who don't know the Italian pronunciation tend to say "broo-SHET-tah"

And who knows what either of them may mean in Portuguese?

Thanks for posting the Madonna interview Ianfranco, what a great laugh I had !!

lol stamac, I wonder who was the more embarrassed?

I have heard that someone who knew a slavic language said 'I would like to meet your wife' in that language to the speaker of another slavic language and found the phrase was understandible but offensive.

Ha! I've enjoyed reading the latest posts. Very funny stuff

On the Maruchan "Instant lunch" noodles cup there's a warning that says: "Caution: Hot! Handle with care especially when serving children".

Every time I read that, I get a very strange mental image It reminds me of that Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man"

Anybody remember the scene in "The King and I" where the king gets angry because an English writer describes him as a "spare" man (meaning thin) and he thinks it means "unnecessary"?

How about the Japanese video game Zero Wing with the translation of "All Your Base Are Belong To Us." Yeah that is a messed up translation from Japanese to English...

We get some howlers in Israel, too. I've seen kebab on skewers listed as "meatballs on knits". We were watching a movie on television once, and a character said "Oh, here comes the Good Humor Man", referring to someone dressed all in white, like the guys who used to sell Good Humor ice cream from a truck in the summer. The subtitle read "Here comes the man in a good mood." With so many native English speakers here, I don't know why these mistakes continue.

Bought my daughter a play phone once, made somewhere in Asia, and later noticed the brand name was "Benign Girl." Was on the lookout thereafter for its evil sister brand sure to be named Malignant Girl.