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The internet is a veritable treasure trove for all those
out there searching for hilarious mistranslations. Take,
for example, the China Eastern Airlines
English translation
requirement to check in
‘animals and alcoholics’
or how about the
“Super Laser Yo Yo”?
Apart from having the foresight to warn users about
leaving ‘the string alone with children under 3’ or not
to ‘tie the string around your neck to play with in a
rough way’, the product instructions also wisely advise
‘Don’t put into mouth to prevent from choking.’ Now I
don’t know about you, but I had heard of t he Heimlich
Manoeuvre – although not about the “Super Laser Yo Yo”
Manoeuvre, so I’m glad that the latter has already been
disproved as an effective way to prevent from choking.
Sometimes, mistranslations may even be good for sales
(as I imagine to be the case with the ‘Since 1971
Healthy Cereal Snack LOVE PORN’ – gosh that’ll get a
rise and shine
at breakfast time!) but I don’t think I’m going out on
too much of a limb by emphasising the importance of a
reliable
translation service.
An effective
translation
is not one that makes your company the laughing stock of
clients, tourists and net surfers.
But how can you guarantee finding quality
translation services?
It’s crucial that the translation service has experience
in the particular field of translation that you require
(legal, marketing, technical or website) and that they
are employing native speakers of the target language.
There is a vast array of reasons that individuals and
businesses need
translations.
From dealing with multilingual contracts to divorce
papers, medical papers to marketing literature, there
are even more reasons that you should entrust your
translations to the experts.
Then you can put your feet up, and rest assured that
your final product won’t turn out something like this:
‘May warm and sweet feelings linger, ower you densely on
these, poetry-like and picture days.’ Say what you
really want to say – don’t let language be a barrier for
you or your business. |
