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An amateur error perhaps but hardly limited to free software. In a particularly expensive piece of enterprise software for the finance sector that was translat

An amateur error perhaps but hardly limited to free software. In a particularly expensive piece of enterprise software for the finance sector that was translated into German a form field was labelled 'Hauptstadt', which translates back into 'capital (city)' as in Washington, D.C. Now, this kind of geographic information doesn't make sense at all in financial software but the well-paid developer (who had to double as the software's translator because hiring a proper translator would of course have been too expensive ...) simply couldn't be bothered to look up the different words 'capital' translates to in German, one of which also is the right choice in that case: 'Kapital' (meaning 'capital' as in 'asset).

anonymousDan 12y ago
Or the classic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm
- paol 12y ago
  See also: restaurant sign during the Chinese Olympic games http://craphound.com/images/translateservererror.jpg http://craphound.com/images/translateservererror.jpg
- blywi 12y ago
  My favorite is still this one: http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/feb/08/diesel-fuel-no-smoking-arabic http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/feb/08/diese...
  - HCIdivision17 12y ago
    There's a certain schadenfreude to be had where the failed translation is also typo'd - but only once. These sorts of things are especially embarassing, as it not only shows no effort was used proofing, but nothing tripped a sanity check at all.
  - ufmace 12y ago
    That's a head-smacker. Some guy somewhere must have actually painted that on the trailer - does that guy not think "Hey, this doesn't really make sense. Are you sure they didn't want somebody to translate this to Arabic?" Or maybe he did and his boss told him to shut up and do as he's told. Or he thought - "Screw this, I wanna go home on time. I'm not gonna bother to find an Arabic translator now. I'll just paint exactly what it says, and they can't get me in much trouble for that."
    - Retra 12y ago
      Maybe he had a stencil and didn't speak english?

anonymousDan 12y ago

Or the classic: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7702913.stm

paol 12y ago
See also: restaurant sign during the Chinese Olympic games http://craphound.com/images/translateservererror.jpg http://craphound.com/images/translateservererror.jpg
blywi 12y ago
My favorite is still this one: http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/feb/08/diesel-fuel-no-smoking-arabic http://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2012/feb/08/diese...
- HCIdivision17 12y ago
  There's a certain schadenfreude to be had where the failed translation is also typo'd - but only once. These sorts of things are especially embarassing, as it not only shows no effort was used proofing, but nothing tripped a sanity check at all.
- ufmace 12y ago
  That's a head-smacker. Some guy somewhere must have actually painted that on the trailer - does that guy not think "Hey, this doesn't really make sense. Are you sure they didn't want somebody to translate this to Arabic?" Or maybe he did and his boss told him to shut up and do as he's told. Or he thought - "Screw this, I wanna go home on time. I'm not gonna bother to find an Arabic translator now. I'll just paint exactly what it says, and they can't get me in much trouble for that."
  - Retra 12y ago
    Maybe he had a stencil and didn't speak english?