[OT] Bad translations in manuals

Chaos Master · Dec 16, 2003

dB(dmb06851@yahoo.com) spoke, er, wrote:

Franc Zabkar <fzabkar@optussnet.com.au> wrote in message

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics
equipment

I came across this in a Spanish translation of a Racal handbook. It's
part of a list of suitable test equipment for an h.f. transceiver.

"Medidor de potencia. Magnetometro remolcado por avion, modelo 43".

Which, in English is "Power meter. Magnetometer towed by an aircraft,
model 43."

The original was "Power meter. Bird model 43".

Explanation. I know that a magnetomoter towed by a ship is sometimes
referred to as the "fish". It is therefore probable that one which is
towed by an aircraft is referred to as a bird.

And I come by this in a printer manual, (presumably )translated to Portuguese:

"Rode a impressora ligada" -> "Turn the printer on"

"rode" , in Portuguese, has 2 meanings:
"to execute" and "to spin".

And another:

"Kill the driver software by clicking in Start -> Kill".

Start -> Kill was meant to be "Iniciar : Executar" which translates to "Start :
Run". In Portuguese, "executar" means both "to slaughter in a violent way, to
murder" and "to run/start/initialize"
--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

Chaos Master · Dec 16, 2003

John Woodgate(jmw@jmwa.demon.contraspam.yuk) spoke, er, wrote:

Where have you BEEN for the past 20 years? Misprints and
mistranslations, and total gobbledegook, are legion in manuals from the
Far East, and even closer to home.

I am only 14 years old.

ehehehehehe

And on the Epson 480 printer software, there were two "STOP" butons, where one
was intended to stop the current page from printing and other cancelled the
entire print job. You didn't know which STOP button to use.

--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

Chaos Master · Dec 16, 2003

Impmon(Impmon@digi.mon) spoke, er, wrote:

I was trying to get some help with the new card reader I got for my Kodak
digital cam but their online help were obviously made by someone who wrote
it originally in Japanese or Chinese and used Babelfish online translator.

http://www.desknote.com.tw/card%20reader/ucr-61s2b-o.html

I got headaches just trying to figure out if that was the right place.

And I have a really cr*ppy translation of an Aiwa audio system manual. The
manual I received was in Portuguese.

(Portuguese -> *exact* English translation)

"As opçőes irăo dar ciclos em ciclos" -> "The options will cycle in cycles"
"Som tem chiado ruidoso" -> "Sound has noisy noise".

Those gave me a good laugh.
--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

Spehro Pefhany · Dec 16, 2003

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 00:40:28 -0200, the renowned YD
<yd.techHAT@techie.com> wrote:

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 06:49:38 -0800, "Richard Henry" <rphenry@home.com
wrote:

"Keith Wootten" <keith.w@ntlworld.Xcom> wrote in message
news:Th8+UPC4SX3$EwNJ@ntlworld.com...

It also had a single page, blank but for the words "This page
intentionally left blank" in the middle. I'd always wanted to do that -
it used to be quite common for reasons I've never fully understood. That
one was pulled.

I once had an actual milspec manual (from Rockwell, I think) with two
interesting consecutive pages deep in the middle. The first page just said
"This page inentionally left blank." The next page was just blank.

Maybe it was unintentionally left blank.

Why didn't it say that then?

Best regards,
Spehro Pefhany
--
"it's the network..." "The Journey is the reward"
speff@interlog.com Info for manufacturers: http://www.trexon.com
Embedded software/hardware/analog Info for designers: http://www.speff.com

Chaos Master · Dec 16, 2003

Spehro Pefhany(speffSNIP@interlogDOTyou.knowwhat) spoke, er, wrote:

Why didn't it say that then?

The page wouldn't be blank anymore?

--
ChaosŽ - posting from Brazil
wizard_of_NOSPAM@hotmail.com
Replace "NOSPAM" by "rodney" written backwards "yendor".

The Real Andy · Dec 16, 2003

"Chaos Master" <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a473c71628148c5989851@news.cis.dfn.de...

red rover(NOnatpressSPAM@sympatico.ca) spoke, er, wrote:
Do a google search for "all your base are belong
to us". One of the most famous bad translations.

Or check out this website.
http://www.engrish.com/faq.php

Other ones I remembered:

"Press ON to turn on you." -> From an el cheapo calculator.

"Click 'enter' to continue" -> from my Rockwell modem driver CD

I had a sticker on a cheap manual guillotine that said to'remove power from
machine tool before maintenance" - no power on that machine tool.

Also bought some cheap OEM barcode scanners that came with a manual so
poorly translated that you couldn;t even understand it.

dB · Dec 16, 2003

There was a story going around a few years ago about a software
company who produced a program to translate English - Arabic amd
Arabic - English.

Someone typed in an English phrase and gave the resulting Arabic to an
Arabist who then entered it for translation back to English.

The result was "water-filled male sheep".

The original? "Hydraulic ram".

Oh, incidentally, any Arabists out there who can tell us the Arabic
word or expression for "hygiene"?

Hubert Littau · Dec 16, 2003

On Mon, 15 Dec 2003 01:32:05 -0200, Chaos Master
<please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics equipment
manuals? I'm curious after I've found some:

"To tune, turn the digits on the front" - From one of those el cheapo radios.

"Power adapter driver software CD" - From the manual of my AOC scanner, that had
almost no line breaks at all. It was understood to be, in a listing:

"1. Power adapter
2. Driver software CD"

"256kb of 512kb of cache memory." - From my PC manual.

And my favorite, from a Brazilian site on repair, that has a translation in
English:

"<device> makes popcorn when turned on" - They translated "popping sound" to
"POPCORN"!!!

Perhaps not a translation error but certainly a miss-spelling with
potentialy painfull consequences was in the service manual for the
Sony model D9 cd player. In the alignment procedure it firmly states
to "insert the dick and close the lid."

dB · Dec 16, 2003

...... and take a look at this

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=http://www.amplifier.cd/Verstaerker/Wald_und_Wiesen_hifi_Verstaerker_Test/was_bedeuten_open_loop_slew_rate_bandbreite.htm&prev=/search%3Fq%3Ddefinition%2Bof%2Bslew%2Brate%26start%3D10%26hl%3Den%26lr%3D%26ie%3DUTF-8%26sa%3DN

Wouter van Ooijen (www.vo · Dec 16, 2003

It also had a single page, blank but for the words "This page
intentionally left blank" in the middle. I'd always wanted to do that -
it used to be quite common for reasons I've never fully understood.

duh, I once put in 'this page was unintentionally left blank'. IIRC it
was not removed

Wouter van Ooijen

-- ------------------------------------
http://www.voti.nl
PICmicro chips, programmers, consulting

Paul Burke · Dec 16, 2003

Wouter van Ooijen (www.voti.nl) wrote:

duh, I once put in 'this page was unintentionally left blank'. IIRC it
was not removed

I recently found that one of my customers uses automatic translation
software to translate his operator manuals etc. into other languages. I
suspect that not only English speakers derive amusement from
mistranslations.

But I recall the manymoonsago Texas TTL data book included the 74LS2000,
which, so they said "includes logic to prevent the faultless operation
of the device".

Paul Burke

nospam · Dec 16, 2003

Chaos Master <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote:

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics equipment
manuals? I'm curious after I've found some:

Another even more off topic bike one. An English manual for a Spanish
motorbike instructed me to

Grease all whirling parts.

Bob Stephens · Dec 16, 2003

On 15 Dec 2003 23:43:25 -0800, dB wrote:

There was a story going around a few years ago about a software
company who produced a program to translate English - Arabic amd
Arabic - English.

Someone typed in an English phrase and gave the resulting Arabic to an
Arabist who then entered it for translation back to English.

The result was "water-filled male sheep".

The original? "Hydraulic ram".

Oh, incidentally, any Arabists out there who can tell us the Arabic
word or expression for "hygiene"?

Sadaam Hussein *NOT*

Asimov · Dec 16, 2003

"The Real Andy" bravely wrote to "All" (16 Dec 03 17:02:11)
--- on the heady topic of "Re: [OT] Bad translations in manuals"

TRA> From: "The Real Andy" <ihatehifitrolls@yahoo.com.au>
TRA> "Chaos Master" <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote in message
TRA> news:MPG.1a473c71628148c5989851@news.cis.dfn.de...

red rover(NOnatpressSPAM@sympatico.ca) spoke, er, wrote:
Do a google search for "all your base are belong
to us". One of the most famous bad translations.

Or check out this website.
http://www.engrish.com/faq.php

Other ones I remembered:

"Press ON to turn on you." -> From an el cheapo calculator.

"Click 'enter' to continue" -> from my Rockwell modem driver CD

TRA> I had a sticker on a cheap manual guillotine that said to'remove power
TRA> from machine tool before maintenance" - no power on that machine tool.

TRA> Also bought some cheap OEM barcode scanners that came with a manual so
TRA> poorly translated that you couldn;t even understand it.

Here's one:

.... We're upping our standards...so up yours!

Winfield Hill · Dec 16, 2003

Paul Burke wrote...

Texas TTL data book included the 74LS2000...

? 74LS2000 ?

Thanks,
- Win

whill_at_picovolt-dot-com

Keith R. Williams · Dec 16, 2003

In article <brn9sb01h3i@drn.newsguy.com>, Winfield_member@newsguy.com
says...

Paul Burke wrote...

Texas TTL data book included the 74LS2000...

? 74LS2000 ?

Y2K compatable 'LS00?

--
Keith

Klaus Vestergaard Kragelu · Dec 16, 2003

Not a manual, but a sticker inside a uninterruptable power supply I once saw
at a company I was employed in:

"High Tension"

The (mechanical) engineer had translated "Spćnding" (danish word for voltage
and mechanical tension) and just used the first word he saw in the
dictionary. It should ofcourse have said "High Voltage"

"Chaos Master" <please.ask@ibestvip.com.br> wrote in message
news:MPG.1a471f377573ce4798984f@news.cis.dfn.de...

Has anyone in this group ever found bad translations in electronics
equipment
manuals? I'm curious after I've found some:

"To tune, turn the digits on the front" - From one of those el cheapo
radios.

"Power adapter driver software CD" - From the manual of my AOC scanner,
that had
almost no line breaks at all. It was understood to be, in a listing:

"1. Power adapter
2. Driver software CD"

"256kb of 512kb of cache memory." - From my PC manual.

And my favorite, from a Brazilian site on repair, that has a translation
in
English:

"<device> makes popcorn when turned on" - They translated "popping sound"
to
"POPCORN"!!!

--

John Woodgate · Dec 16, 2003

I read in sci.electronics.design that Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund
<klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote (in <3fdf366c$0$9724$edfadb0f@dread14.news
..tele.dk&gt

about '[OT] Bad translations in manuals', on Tue, 16 Dec
2003:

Not a manual, but a sticker inside a uninterruptable power supply I once
saw at a company I was employed in:

"High Tension"

The (mechanical) engineer had translated "Spćnding" (danish word for
voltage and mechanical tension) and just used the first word he saw in
the dictionary. It should ofcourse have said "High Voltage"

The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.
--
Regards, John Woodgate, OOO - Own Opinions Only. http://www.jmwa.demon.co.uk
Interested in professional sound reinforcement and distribution? Then go to
http://www.isce.org.uk
PLEASE do NOT copy news posts to me by E-MAIL!

John Fields · Dec 16, 2003

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:00:53 +0000, John Woodgate
<jmw@jmwa.demon.contraspam.yuk> wrote:

The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

---
I remember 'EHT' supplies in Decca RADARs back in my seafaring days...

--
John Fields

Allodoxaphobia · Dec 16, 2003

On Tue, 16 Dec 2003 18:00:53 +0000, John Woodgate hath writ:

I read in sci.electronics.design that Klaus Vestergaard Kragelund
klauskvik@hotmail.com> wrote (in <3fdf366c$0$9724$edfadb0f@dread14.news
.tele.dk&gt about '[OT] Bad translations in manuals', on Tue, 16 Dec
Not a manual, but a sticker inside a uninterruptable power supply I once
saw at a company I was employed in:

"High Tension"

The (mechanical) engineer had translated "Spćnding" (danish word for
voltage and mechanical tension) and just used the first word he saw in
the dictionary. It should ofcourse have said "High Voltage"

The phrase 'high tension' (meaning 'high voltage') is still current in
British English in certain contexts. It was far more widely used in the
time of battery-powered radios.

[OT] Bad translations in manuals

Chaos Master

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Chaos Master

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Chaos Master

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Spehro Pefhany

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Chaos Master

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The Real Andy

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dB

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Hubert Littau

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dB

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Wouter van Ooijen (www.vo

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Paul Burke

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nospam

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Bob Stephens

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Asimov

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Winfield Hill

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Klaus Vestergaard Kragelu

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