Translation Hall of ShameIn this page, we give some examples of “when translations go wrong”. These are all real examples, collected from my personal experiences in Japan. I hope you find them as entertaining as I do, but please bear in mind that there is a lesson about translations in there too. Imagine if this was your product, service, or company image that was put in print or onto the Internet with these sentences. Also imagine the cost of finding these mistakes after printing 3000 copies. Ouch!
 Various factors may have caused these errors, including the use of translation software instead of a professional translator, translators not translating into their native language, or simply sloppy work! Next time you think about translating a document, remember that NSLS work will never end up on a list like this!
Here are the Bloopers:
“When the brief summer has gone, dazzling green faces of mountains start to change color, and finally, it is vividly painted with reds, yellows, and greens.” (English Language Tourist pamphlet)
“Nobody can express how beautiful it is. Its beauty is as impressive as a gorgeous painting, or rather, it is more impressive than a painting.” (English Language Tourist pamphlet)
“Lets enjoy seasonal beautiful and delicious food!”
(English Language Advertising pamphlet)
“International Habitual Drink”
(English language homepage of a Japanese Sake (Rice Wine) brewery)
 We received this as a present from a recent business trip to Korea, its supposed to be some kind of facial cream, needless to say none of our staff have used it yet! Fancy smearing some sheep placenta on your face, anyone???
“Smoked Beef Rectum”
(Name of food product on packaging)
“Clean spring make a good flavor Rainbow trot, Masu trot, Carp Kamikawa-cho products breed fish from rivers, use a spring the blessings of nature from Mt. Daisetsu”
(English Language Tourist Pamphlet)
"The TOYA Lake is 43km of circumferences, and a diameter of 8km-11km circular crater lake.The pleasure boat of the TOYA Lake steamship plies from the pier in front of a station, and it comes at a KAN-NON island, BENTEN island, and O-SHIMA that the wild EZO deer inhabits.The fireworks admiration ship which runs the launch ship of fireworks later on also plies at the time of a long-run fireworks show."
Taken from the 2007 website of a large hotel.
These are the effects that you can experience, apparently, if you take the plunge and visit the Hot Springs at TOYA KOHAN-TEI:
"Effects …Neuralgia・Muscular pain・Joint ache・Bruise・It breaks・Chronic digestive organ disease・Cold nature"
Taken from the 2007 website of a large hotel.
Please send us your own bloopers.
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