That Chinese Tattoo: I Do Not Think It M...

Chinese characters are so much more beautiful, so much more elegant than the boring old Latin alphabet. Or at least that seems to be the train of thought behind the ubiquitous Chinese tattoos that have been popping up on the bodies of young, English-speaking Westerners over the past few years. Granted,...

British Colombian Mounties Remove Google...

The debate over machine-produced versus human translation took the British Colombian division of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police by surprise, according to this article in the Vancouver Sun. The BC Mounties were providing French translations of their press releases via Google Translate. However, after...

Crowd-Sourced Translation Goes Awry For ...

Facebook’s crowd-sourced translation app has helped the company translate Facebook into over 100 different languages quickly and cheaply. However, the company (and many of its users) just discovered one of the downsides of crowd-sourcing- vulnerability to online pranksters. The problem was discovered...

Shanghai Tries to Clean Up Its Chinglish...

For the next 6 months, Shanghai will be hosting the 2010 World Expo. According to the New York Times, the Chinese government is preparing for the event, in part, by mounting a campaign to clean up the muddle of malapropisms affectionately known as “Chinglish.” Some Chinglish is simply produced by...

What Does Your Baby’s Name Mean?...

Years ago, people stuck, for the most part, with traditional names for their little ones. Now, perhaps inspired by the odd names celebrities tend to choose for their offspring (Moon Unit? Apple? Sparrow?  Moxie CrimeFighter?), many expectant parents spend a lot of time trying to find something unique...

Message in a bottle...

A French love letter was found near Falmouth, Cornwall last week. The beer bottle was found by Martin Leslie, a coastguard manager, and his family as they walked on Praa Sands, near Falmouth. The bottle was poking out of the sand; its top was sealed with red candle wax. Inside was a three A4 pages handwritten...

Lost In Translation: French Panic On Pla...

French passengers on board an Aer Lingus Dublin to Paris flight had a fright when the captain made a routine announcement earlier this week. On the 4th August the A320 Airbus flight took off with around 70 people on board many of whom were French. Twenty minutes into the flight after leaving Dublin,...

Will Facebook Own Crowdsourced Translati...

On Tuesday, the Baltimore Sun noted that Facebook has applied for a patent for its crowdsourced translation application. The app, which has been in use since early last year, has helped Facebook quickly and efficiently translate its pages into different languages. Here’s how it works: the application...

Lost in Translation: 2 Cuban Pitchers...

In the World Baseball Classic, an error in translation caused the Cuban baseball team to lose two of its top relief pitchers for their game against Mexico on Monday, March 16th. According to the New York Times, in the World Baseball Classic, the official rules are always in English. However, an ‘unofficial’...

Chicago Overcome Olympic Translation Pro...

Chicago is bidding to host the 2016 Olympics but they have had to change their official slogan from ‘Stir The Soul’ to ‘Let Friendship Shine’ over problems with mistranslation in some countries. Mistranslation is quite common; context is easily lost especially in countries such as Japan and...