7 little translation mistakes that caused big problems
Knowing
how to speak two languages is not the same thing as knowing how to
translate. Translation is a special skill that professionals work hard
to develop.
In their book Found in Translation, professional translators Nataly
Kelly and Jost Zetzsche give a spirited tour of the world of
translation, full of fascinating stories about everything from volunteer
text message translators during the Haitian earthquake rescue effort, to
the challenges of translation at the Olympics and the World Cup, to the
personal friendships celebrities like Yao Ming and Marlee Matlin have
with their translators. The importance of good translation is most
obvious when things go wrong. Here are nine examples from the book that
show just how high-stakes the job of translation can be.
1. THE SEVENTY-ONE- MILLION-DOLLAR WORD
In 1980, 18-year-old Willie Ramirez was admitted to a Florida
hospital in a comatose state. His friends and family tried to describe
his condition to the paramedics and doctors who treated him, but they
only spoke Spanish. Translation was provided by a bilingual staff member
who translated “intoxicado” as “intoxicated.”
A professional interpreter would have known that “intoxicado” is
closer to “poisoned” and doesn't carry the same connotations of drug or
alcohol use that “intoxicated” does. Ramirez's family believed he was
suffering from food poisoning. He was actually suffering from an
intracerebral haemorrhage, but the doctors proceeded as if he were
suffering from an intentional drug overdose, which can lead to some of
the symptoms he displayed. Because of the delay in treatment, Ramirez
was left quadriplegic. He received a malpractice settlement of $71
million.
2. DO NOTHING
In 2009, HSBC bank had to launch a $10 million rebranding campaign to
repair the damage done when its catchphrase “Assume Nothing” was
mistranslated as “Do Nothing” in various countries.
3. MARKETS TUMBLE
A panic in the world's foreign exchange market led the US dollar to
plunge in value after a poor English translation of an article by Guan
Xiangdong of the China News Service zoomed around the Internet. The
original article was a casual, speculative overview of some financial
reports, but the English translation sounded much more authoritative and
concrete.
4. WHAT'S THAT ON MOSES'S HEAD?
St. Jerome, the patron saint of translators, studied Hebrew so he
could translate the Old Testament into Latin from the original, instead
of from the third century Greek version that everyone else had used. The
resulting Latin version, which became the basis for hundreds of
subsequent translations, contained a famous mistake.
When Moses comes down from Mount Sinai his head has “radiance” or, in
Hebrew, “karan.” But Hebrew is written without the vowels, and St.
Jerome had read “karan” as “keren,” or “horned.” From this error came
centuries of paintings and sculptures of Moses with horns and the odd
offensive stereotype of the horned Jew.
5. CHOCOLATES FOR HIM
In the 50s, when chocolate companies began encouraging people to
celebrate Valentine's Day in Japan, a mistranslation from one company
gave people the idea that it was customary for women to give chocolate
to men on the holiday. And that's what they do to this day. On February
14, the women of Japan shower their men with chocolate hearts and
truffles, and on March 14 the men return the favor. An all around win
for the chocolate companies!
6. YOU MUST DEFEAT SHENG LONG
In the Japanese video game Street Fighter II a character says, “If
you cannot overcome the Rising Dragon Punch, you cannot win!” When this
was translated from Japanese into English, the characters for “rising
dragon” were interpreted as “Sheng Long.”
The same characters can have different readings in Japanese, and the
translator, working on a list of phrases and unaware of the context,
thought a new person was being introduced to the game. Gamers went crazy
trying to figure out who this Sheng Long was and how they could defeat
him.
In 1992, as an April Fools Day joke, Electronic Gaming Monthly
published elaborate and difficult to execute instructions for how to
find Sheng Long. It wasn't revealed as a hoax until that December, after
countless hours had no doubt been wasted.
7. TROUBLE AT WAITANGI
In 1840, the British government made a deal with the Maori chiefs in
New Zealand.
The Maori wanted protection from marauding convicts, sailors, and
traders running roughshod through their villages, and the British wanted
to expand their colonial holdings. The Treaty of Waitangi was drawn up
and both sides signed it. But they were signing different documents.
In the English version, the Maori were to “cede to Her Majesty the
Queen of England absolutely and without reservation all the rights and
powers of Sovereignty.”
In the Maori translation, composed by a British missionary, they were
not to give up sovereignty, but governance.
They thought they were getting a legal system, but keeping their
right to rule themselves. That's not how it turned out, and generations
later the issues around the meaning of this treaty are still being
worked out.
- Mental-Floss |