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#64838 04/10/02 01:19 AM
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Here's a link form Dr. Bill's Manic Kitty site, mistranslations: actual English signs posted in the various hotels and resorts of the world. This was one of my favorties:

A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest: It is strictly forbidden on
our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for
instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are
married with each other for that purpose.


Thanks, Dr. Bill!


http://eserver.org/langs/mistranslations.txt

Your Happy Epeolatrist!

#64839 04/10/02 01:25 AM
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To make it short: No fornicating in the forest.


#64840 04/10/02 01:40 AM
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Shorter, and ruder: No f****** under fir


#64841 04/10/02 01:48 AM
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Mistranslations... ah, travel stories abound.

While travelling/working in Indonesia, the theatre group I was with attended an assembly of staff and students at an International School. While primarily English speaking, they regularly made announcements in both Bahasa Indonesia and Bahasa Inggeris. A new-ish (well, new to speaking Indonesian) teacher introduced the principal as the "Kelapa Sekolah" school coconut instead of "Kepala Sekolah" Principal, literally Head of the School. Needless to say most people were trying to hold back their laughter, while the Principal made his way to the stage!

Anyone else got "been there done that" translation funnies?

Hev

#64842 04/10/02 01:52 AM
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Shorter, and ruder

Oh, Doc, you've obviously left your bedside manner elsewhere.

Hev

#64843 04/10/02 02:02 AM
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Oh, Doc, you've obviously left your bedside manner elsewhere.
In the forest, perhaps?


#64844 04/10/02 02:31 AM
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In a Bangkok dry cleaner's: Drop your trousers here for best results.

Outside a Paris dress shop: Dresses for street walking.

In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.


Hey....who can I tootle????????



#64845 04/10/02 04:03 AM
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teacher introduced the principal as the "Kelapa Sekolah"
Hey hev - that puts me in mind o' the time sumbuddy famous (a USn pres? Roosevelt, even?) introduced himself to the massed crowds in Berlin by saying, in incorrect Cherman: "I am a jelly doughnut!"


#64846 04/10/02 01:12 PM
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Re: "I am a jelly doughnut!"

that was JFK, during the berlin crisis. He had the words right, I am a berliner -- but it was an idiom -- a berliner was a fruit filled breakfast pastry, (not quite a jelly donut) He should have said, I am from berlin..

didn't matter much, the people of berlin understood his intent, even if he used the wrong idiom.


#64847 04/10/02 01:52 PM
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"Jelly doughnut" Dear of troy: I saw a site somewhere that only a few snotty journalists made that mistranslation.


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