As a more light-hearted contrast to the helpful Weekly Translation Tips Email announced last week, Globalization Group, Inc. (GGI) has begun emailing Weekly Translation Bloopers to companies (clients) that procure language services. Subscription is also free.
The press release says that the emails will try to exclude all those urban legends about mistranslations that never really happened.
Whenever possible, emails will include a link to the evidence that the blooper-of- the-week really did occur. Efforts will be made to exclude overused myths like Chevrolet’s allegedly disastrous marketing of the ‘Nova’ car in Mexico (‘no va’ means ‘it doesn’t go’ in Spanish) and the allegation that President John F. Kennedy’s statement, “Ich bin ein Berliner,” was misunderstood to mean, “I am a jelly donut.” Instead, the weekly translation bloopers will include real world examples like the offensive German-to-English brand translation of the Audi “White Power” sports car and the more light-hearted English-to-Russian technical translation of “hydraulic rams” as “wet sheep.”Read more in the press release or subscribe here.
Update: the archives of these translation bloopers are now available online.
