Apr

26

Horrible languages…

April 26, 2007 |

I don’t really like criticising people for trying to speak a foreign language. At least they are trying. That said, people should really know that using an automatic translator to help you understand a text is OK, but it is definitely not OK for translating official announcements. The following two pictures were taken in front of the Dominion Theatre, in London, where presumably a bunch of Spanish speaking pickpockets receive free English grammar lessons:

Pickpocket Warning 02Pickpocket Warning 01
The translation basically says:
The “pickpockets” are put away.
Police of the inner cover that works in the area.
On 3 July, the pickpockets received sentences (as in grammatical sentences) of the prison on top of four years.

—– Earlier that day —–

This is a photo of one of the buildings of Westminster School, in Dean’s Yard, behind Westminster Abbey. It is a lovely place and it has fantastic views of the Abbey and the Houses of the Parliament. But, the Greek writing has a horrible mistake. Can you spot it?

Greek Sign


Comments

2 Comments so far

  1. Maria-Venetia Kyritsi on May 1, 2007 9:43

    Actually we later discovered that this wonderful translation was brought to you courtesy of the London Met police via Altavista Babelfish.

    If you go to http://babelfish.altavista.com/ and enter the English text from the picture, you will get the exact same Spanish translation…

    Pity the London authorities can not spare £5 of our tax money to get a *real* translation done.

  2. lsolorzano on May 1, 2007 14:04

    Taking it one step further, I put the Spanish translation into BabelFish and got the following translation into English:

    Pickpockets keeps. Police of the inner cover that works in this area. In three July pickpockets received orations on of four years.

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