Lost in Translation

Posted by Miss Cellania in Pictures, Travel & Places on November 1, 2008 at 10:15 pm



All road signs in Wales must have text in both English and Welsh. Sometimes they don’t exactly agree. Swansea Council emailed a request for a Welsh translation for this sign. The reply came back in Welsh, and was duly printed. The problem is that the Welsh version says (in English),

“I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated”.

The sign has been removed, but quite a few photographs were already taken and sent to the Welsh language magazine Golwg, which has a series of such unfortunate translations. Link -via Digg


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10 comments to "Lost in Translation"

  1. mrmuggles
    November 2nd, 2008 at 1:24 am

    That's a great one, too bad I can't read Welsh, I'll have to trust you on that one ;) It reminds me the "Translate Server Error" Chinese restaurant :
    http://www.boingboing.net/2008/07/15/chinese-restaurant-c.html

  2. Him
    November 2nd, 2008 at 10:38 am

    Lol, Engrishfunny.com time

  3. violet
    November 2nd, 2008 at 2:08 pm

    I'm confused. The Welsh sent for a Welsh translation? Wasn't there someone around the office that might have been able to do it, or at least catch the error? Something's missing.

  4. Ali S.
    November 2nd, 2008 at 3:49 pm

    Hahaha!

  5. Pudifoot
    November 2nd, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    The only Welsh I know is "Blaidd Drwg". It is Welsh for "Bad Wolf".

    -- See? You can learn things from watching Doctor Who!

  6. Miss Cellania
    November 2nd, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    In America, this would have just said "No Trucks".

  7. Gail Pink
    November 3rd, 2008 at 8:54 am

    Priceless.

  8. Pudifoot
    November 3rd, 2008 at 11:46 am

    I like the idea of a 'no entry' sign with a giant arrow on it. If i was making a sign for people not to enter a place, the last thing i would do is have a giant arrow pointing the way.

  9. ted
    November 3rd, 2008 at 7:09 pm

    Just a "no trucks" sign without any words would have done. A picture of a truck with a slash through it.
    Problem solved.

  10. Lenic
    November 4th, 2008 at 11:26 am

    I’m confused. Why would a Welsh translation service send out messages in only Welsh? Surely most of the messages they get sent are in English or another language, therefore indicating that the sender doesn’t know Welsh!


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