10 epic mistakes in translations made by non-professionals
It happens that translators control everything. Seriously. A person who does not speak a high degree of foreign languages cannot even imagine how strongly he is periodically, forgive them, these same translators fool. And they fool for various reasons: due to ordinary incompetence, lack of time with all the ensuing consequences or banal laziness. If the master (or “master”) was mistaken, everything was lost: the clever hero of the work may be exposed as an idiot, the famous brand is disgraced, and the country is misunderstood in the international arena ...
We decided to recall one of the most epic mistakes that were made by non-professional translators. Weep and laugh with us.
Literature
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Perhaps there is not a single book about the young wizard Harry Potter from the publishing house "Rosman", where there would be no terrifying bloopers. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is chock full of expressions in the spirit of "dusty color", "breathless breath" and "washed air." Hermione with Hagrid on "You." Volan de Mort, as it turned out, died many times, which is rather weakly matched with the plot of past books. Here is another evidence that translators did not bother reading the whole story about Harry. Characters "Deathly Hallows" go through the places where Tom Reddle was killed. But Harry killed him only once!
This is not all. The same spells in different places of the book are translated differently. The word "God" is printed with a small, then with a capital letter. Meanwhile, Rosman is proud of the translators with whom it collaborates. But dissatisfied with the translation, according to the publisher’s commercial director, is simply mediocre in English ...
***
From what happened with the translation of the books of Stephen King in Russia in the 90s, the king of horrors would probably go insane. The novels "Shining", "Cujo", "Long Walk", "Dead Zone", "Pet Cemetery" and others were reduced to one degree or another. In this case, translation errors are not even the greatest evil. Compared to the rest of King’s works, “The Draw” stands out. Cadman Publishers translated the novel of the English edition, which was missing several pages. What did the translator do? Turned on the fantasy. So in the Russian "Lot" there was a scene of the murder of the leader of vampires Barlow, which does not exist in the original. Until the end of the 2000s, “The Lot” was published with gag, and only in 2014 a new translation of the novel with more precise content and title, “The Lot of Salem”, fell on the shelves.
Games
Usually, Sony does not make "crooked" localizations, but the wonderful game The Last of Us, unfortunately, was an exception. A number of almost semantic edits were made in its Russian version - as if the translators knew better what the developers wanted to convey to the audience.
In one of the scenes, a girl named Ellie rescues her “partner” Joel from a gangster, after which a conversation begins. His point is that Joel is dissatisfied with salvation, and Ellie hints that he could be at least a little grateful. In the next scene, Joel still says thank you. In the original, everything is different. Joel does not thank the girl, but gets off with the phrase a la "but either he or me," to which Ellie sarcastically replies: "Please." This radically changes the mood of the conversation and "breaks" the built characters. Joel is a stubborn guy who in life will not say "thank you." Actually, in the original, it does not say that it once again emphasizes its essence ... There are dozens of such critical blunders in localization. What can we say about the Russian name of the game: “One of us” - even a schoolboy knows that “last” means “last”.
***
In the localization of Call of Duty: Black Ops III also tons of stupid mistakes. According to the "magic" of translators, the phrase "Well, your way out" turns into "That's it," and "Roger that" ("Accepted") - for some reason, into "Amen." It seems to be the little things, but the brain beats. Further more. One of the characters says: “While they are busy with a crash, in this form we will be able to slip through.” After the translation, the original meaning disappeared somewhere: “As long as they are occupied by a fallen plane, we can completely slip through.” And this is the very beginning of the game. However, the attraction of ignorance continues until the final credits. Male characters suddenly turn into female characters, phrases are seriously distorted or disappear altogether ... Perhaps Call of Duty: Black Ops III is one of the most terrible examples of localization into Russian in the history of video games. But this is also one of the highest budget games in history ...
Movie
The cult fighter Die Hard with Bruce Willis is known in the post-Soviet space as Die Hard. Once, back in the days of the USSR, Die Hard went out in translation by Leonid Volodarsky and Andrey Gavrilov. Volodarsky called the movie "Die hard, but with dignity", and Gavrilov - "Inexhaustible." No comments.
The phrase "die hard" turned out to be difficult not only for the USSR. In Finland, the name was translated as “Over my dead body”, in Poland - “Glass trap”, in Germany - “Die slowly”, in Spain - “Crystal jungle”, in Hungary - “Give your life more expensive”, in Italy - “Crystal” trap".
How does the long-suffering die hard actually translate? "Rested", "inflexible", "tenacious". There are many options, but the meaning is the same: Bruce Willis, being in deep trouble, will not give up and, in the end, will settle everything. Interestingly, “die hard” also translates as “conservative,” and the main character of the film, John McClain, dislikes computers.
***
Localization of movie titles is generally a sore subject. But often the translation is distorted, not because someone is stupid, but vice versa - because it is too smart. Comedy What We Do in the Shadows entered the Russian hire as "Real Ghouls." Of course, in the film we are talking about vampires and their ilk, only in the original name there is not a word about ghouls, and this is important. One could simply translate as “What we do in the shadows” - and that would be quite enough; there was a completely extra creative. However, perhaps it was a tricky calculation for the mass audience, who was delighted with the TNT “Real Kids”. So to say, mimicry, aimed at triggering the trigger in the heads of the inhabitants: “real” means to look. The intelligent comedy as a whole was confounded in the Russian translation.
Advertising
Good advertising is the engine of commerce, bad is a fat spot on reputation. When Pepsi had just made its way to China, then first of all, it launched a promotional campaign under the slogan “Come alive! You're in the Pepsi generation! ”, Which in the Russian version sounds like“ Come to life! You are the Pepsi generation! ” In the advertising market, it was a hit.
The Chinese are hard-working people, the work is usually done on “excellent” and they do not ask unnecessary questions. Therefore, the slogan was clearly translated, clearly printed in the amount of nearly a million pieces and just as clearly hung. As agreed - on each unoccupied wall. And everything would be fine, but the meaning of the hieroglyphs that make up the slogan meant: "Pepsi will make the ashes of your dead rise from the graves!" The Chinese were in shock: the West, they say, showed its real face. So much for the Pepsi generation. And so really "liven up"!
***
Far not one Pepsi suffered from misunderstanding on the Chinese open spaces. Coca-Cola also contributed to the moneybox of translators' epic mistakes. The company has long thought about a suitable name for sales in China. The problem was that the Chinese do not speak Coca-Cola, but Keku-Kela. The expression means "bite the wax tadpole", and it clearly did not suit the bosses in cool tuxedos.
With the name for the brand, everything did not stick. The company eliminated about 40 thousand variants (!!!) of writing, before settling on this variant: “Koku-Kola”. This time there were no tadpoles, but nevertheless: “Koku-Kola” is “Happiness in the mouth” ...
Politics
How to worsen relations between Russia and the United States so much that in the end it will lead to the Caribbean crisis? That's right: choose a good translator!
It was an important historical moment. November 18, 1956. First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev speaks at the Polish Embassy. The speech ends with a joke: “We will bury you too!” The translator was correct, dictated as is, but he did not know that the idioms were insidious. The next day, Western newspapers were full of headlines in the style: “Khrushchev promised to bury the entire Western world!” One phrase pulled out of context — and the whole world trembles in the face of Soviet nuclear weapons.
The full expression sounded like “Do you like it or not, but the story is on our side. We will bury you ”and meant only that socialism, and later communism, is more effective and, therefore, will survive capitalism. A few years later, Khrushchev explained that “he did not mean literally digging a grave with a shovel, but only that capitalism would destroy his own working class” ...
***
With politics, it is generally scary to joke. In December 1977, US President Jimmy Carter went on a visit to Poland. Everything was calm until the translator started to talk about it. Jimmy Carter's words were thoroughly changed. The expression "When I left the United States" turned into "When I finally left the United States." The phrase "Our nation was based on ..." sounded like "When our nation was woven." In the sentence “Almost six million Americans are of Polish origin,” the synchronist made a knight's move and issued: “Poland is the homeland of ten million Americans.”
This incident, which almost turned into an international scandal, was remembered by the Poles for a long time. The translator did not think that the president could not quit the United States completely, because this is at least not true, and at most - utter nonsense.
***
The word is great power! Check the original and trust only literate translators. Maybe someday the day will come when humanity will stop making mistakes, but we certainly won't find it.
However, if you do not want your company to join the ranks of those we recalled above, it is better to turn to professional translators . You can become famous in a less painful way for a business.
We decided to recall one of the most epic mistakes that were made by non-professional translators. Weep and laugh with us.
Literature
')
Perhaps there is not a single book about the young wizard Harry Potter from the publishing house "Rosman", where there would be no terrifying bloopers. "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is chock full of expressions in the spirit of "dusty color", "breathless breath" and "washed air." Hermione with Hagrid on "You." Volan de Mort, as it turned out, died many times, which is rather weakly matched with the plot of past books. Here is another evidence that translators did not bother reading the whole story about Harry. Characters "Deathly Hallows" go through the places where Tom Reddle was killed. But Harry killed him only once!
This is not all. The same spells in different places of the book are translated differently. The word "God" is printed with a small, then with a capital letter. Meanwhile, Rosman is proud of the translators with whom it collaborates. But dissatisfied with the translation, according to the publisher’s commercial director, is simply mediocre in English ...
***
From what happened with the translation of the books of Stephen King in Russia in the 90s, the king of horrors would probably go insane. The novels "Shining", "Cujo", "Long Walk", "Dead Zone", "Pet Cemetery" and others were reduced to one degree or another. In this case, translation errors are not even the greatest evil. Compared to the rest of King’s works, “The Draw” stands out. Cadman Publishers translated the novel of the English edition, which was missing several pages. What did the translator do? Turned on the fantasy. So in the Russian "Lot" there was a scene of the murder of the leader of vampires Barlow, which does not exist in the original. Until the end of the 2000s, “The Lot” was published with gag, and only in 2014 a new translation of the novel with more precise content and title, “The Lot of Salem”, fell on the shelves.
Games
Usually, Sony does not make "crooked" localizations, but the wonderful game The Last of Us, unfortunately, was an exception. A number of almost semantic edits were made in its Russian version - as if the translators knew better what the developers wanted to convey to the audience.
In one of the scenes, a girl named Ellie rescues her “partner” Joel from a gangster, after which a conversation begins. His point is that Joel is dissatisfied with salvation, and Ellie hints that he could be at least a little grateful. In the next scene, Joel still says thank you. In the original, everything is different. Joel does not thank the girl, but gets off with the phrase a la "but either he or me," to which Ellie sarcastically replies: "Please." This radically changes the mood of the conversation and "breaks" the built characters. Joel is a stubborn guy who in life will not say "thank you." Actually, in the original, it does not say that it once again emphasizes its essence ... There are dozens of such critical blunders in localization. What can we say about the Russian name of the game: “One of us” - even a schoolboy knows that “last” means “last”.
***
In the localization of Call of Duty: Black Ops III also tons of stupid mistakes. According to the "magic" of translators, the phrase "Well, your way out" turns into "That's it," and "Roger that" ("Accepted") - for some reason, into "Amen." It seems to be the little things, but the brain beats. Further more. One of the characters says: “While they are busy with a crash, in this form we will be able to slip through.” After the translation, the original meaning disappeared somewhere: “As long as they are occupied by a fallen plane, we can completely slip through.” And this is the very beginning of the game. However, the attraction of ignorance continues until the final credits. Male characters suddenly turn into female characters, phrases are seriously distorted or disappear altogether ... Perhaps Call of Duty: Black Ops III is one of the most terrible examples of localization into Russian in the history of video games. But this is also one of the highest budget games in history ...
Movie
The cult fighter Die Hard with Bruce Willis is known in the post-Soviet space as Die Hard. Once, back in the days of the USSR, Die Hard went out in translation by Leonid Volodarsky and Andrey Gavrilov. Volodarsky called the movie "Die hard, but with dignity", and Gavrilov - "Inexhaustible." No comments.
The phrase "die hard" turned out to be difficult not only for the USSR. In Finland, the name was translated as “Over my dead body”, in Poland - “Glass trap”, in Germany - “Die slowly”, in Spain - “Crystal jungle”, in Hungary - “Give your life more expensive”, in Italy - “Crystal” trap".
How does the long-suffering die hard actually translate? "Rested", "inflexible", "tenacious". There are many options, but the meaning is the same: Bruce Willis, being in deep trouble, will not give up and, in the end, will settle everything. Interestingly, “die hard” also translates as “conservative,” and the main character of the film, John McClain, dislikes computers.
***
Localization of movie titles is generally a sore subject. But often the translation is distorted, not because someone is stupid, but vice versa - because it is too smart. Comedy What We Do in the Shadows entered the Russian hire as "Real Ghouls." Of course, in the film we are talking about vampires and their ilk, only in the original name there is not a word about ghouls, and this is important. One could simply translate as “What we do in the shadows” - and that would be quite enough; there was a completely extra creative. However, perhaps it was a tricky calculation for the mass audience, who was delighted with the TNT “Real Kids”. So to say, mimicry, aimed at triggering the trigger in the heads of the inhabitants: “real” means to look. The intelligent comedy as a whole was confounded in the Russian translation.
Advertising
Good advertising is the engine of commerce, bad is a fat spot on reputation. When Pepsi had just made its way to China, then first of all, it launched a promotional campaign under the slogan “Come alive! You're in the Pepsi generation! ”, Which in the Russian version sounds like“ Come to life! You are the Pepsi generation! ” In the advertising market, it was a hit.
The Chinese are hard-working people, the work is usually done on “excellent” and they do not ask unnecessary questions. Therefore, the slogan was clearly translated, clearly printed in the amount of nearly a million pieces and just as clearly hung. As agreed - on each unoccupied wall. And everything would be fine, but the meaning of the hieroglyphs that make up the slogan meant: "Pepsi will make the ashes of your dead rise from the graves!" The Chinese were in shock: the West, they say, showed its real face. So much for the Pepsi generation. And so really "liven up"!
***
Far not one Pepsi suffered from misunderstanding on the Chinese open spaces. Coca-Cola also contributed to the moneybox of translators' epic mistakes. The company has long thought about a suitable name for sales in China. The problem was that the Chinese do not speak Coca-Cola, but Keku-Kela. The expression means "bite the wax tadpole", and it clearly did not suit the bosses in cool tuxedos.
With the name for the brand, everything did not stick. The company eliminated about 40 thousand variants (!!!) of writing, before settling on this variant: “Koku-Kola”. This time there were no tadpoles, but nevertheless: “Koku-Kola” is “Happiness in the mouth” ...
Politics
How to worsen relations between Russia and the United States so much that in the end it will lead to the Caribbean crisis? That's right: choose a good translator!
It was an important historical moment. November 18, 1956. First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev speaks at the Polish Embassy. The speech ends with a joke: “We will bury you too!” The translator was correct, dictated as is, but he did not know that the idioms were insidious. The next day, Western newspapers were full of headlines in the style: “Khrushchev promised to bury the entire Western world!” One phrase pulled out of context — and the whole world trembles in the face of Soviet nuclear weapons.
The full expression sounded like “Do you like it or not, but the story is on our side. We will bury you ”and meant only that socialism, and later communism, is more effective and, therefore, will survive capitalism. A few years later, Khrushchev explained that “he did not mean literally digging a grave with a shovel, but only that capitalism would destroy his own working class” ...
***
With politics, it is generally scary to joke. In December 1977, US President Jimmy Carter went on a visit to Poland. Everything was calm until the translator started to talk about it. Jimmy Carter's words were thoroughly changed. The expression "When I left the United States" turned into "When I finally left the United States." The phrase "Our nation was based on ..." sounded like "When our nation was woven." In the sentence “Almost six million Americans are of Polish origin,” the synchronist made a knight's move and issued: “Poland is the homeland of ten million Americans.”
This incident, which almost turned into an international scandal, was remembered by the Poles for a long time. The translator did not think that the president could not quit the United States completely, because this is at least not true, and at most - utter nonsense.
***
The word is great power! Check the original and trust only literate translators. Maybe someday the day will come when humanity will stop making mistakes, but we certainly won't find it.
However, if you do not want your company to join the ranks of those we recalled above, it is better to turn to professional translators . You can become famous in a less painful way for a business.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/298694/
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