Helloh, Bud: Why You Shouldn’t Use Translation Engine to Address the Foreign Minister

A group of Israeli journalists created a diplomatic row when they decided to use a translation engine to send an email to the Dutch Consulate. They wanted to discuss an upcoming visit to the Netherlands, but ended up asking the Dutch Foreign Minister impolite questions about his mother!

"Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland," began the e-mail. It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of "mother."

The article at Jerusalem Post went on to describe how the journalists used babelfish.com to translate the letter, but this appeared to be a mistake in itself: babelfish doesn’t translate Hebrew: Link – via The Register