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Previous: Halal food cart sign | Main | Next: (Not broken) Consumer tech guide
October 19, 2005 12:03 AM
Broken: Snack menu
Wilco van Duinkerken writes:
During my holiday in Slovenia I came across a very funny snack menu.
Due to a translation mistake the menu says:
We have:
- Cake
- Roll
- Different kind of cake
After some research it seems that the right translation of the last rule is "Different kinds of cake", which makes more sense.
this reminds me of if u translate "wal mart" into german and then back again, i comes out as "whale mart" or something
I agree with Kip. Ever read an instruction manual for an applicance that was manufactured outside the US? It's actually quite funny. Maybe not "engrish" but "anglush"? After all, it is Hungarian.
Umm, not broken. Although the line with "cake" on it does contain a German translation error. "Keks" in German means cookie not cake. Other than that, I don't see what's wrong with the sign besides a slight grammatical error.
Far from broken, I'd thank the person who thought about his/her non Slovak speaking customers and made an effort to translate the menu to English, German and a third language that I didn't recognize.
Perfect translation? maybe not, but the good effort makes a nicer customer experience, then, NOT BROKEN.
SAM is basically right. Although for the German-speaking reader the sign offers annother
titbit: BELEKTESBROT (meant is "belegtes Brot") looks like "belecktes Brot" which means "licked bread".
yes the third one is differnt kinds of cake. but just a note, the first one refers to a specific type of cake. further proof that slavic languages are very similar. I read this Slovenian sign in Polish and I understood it :)
Hey what's really broken is yesterday I could click on the "snack menu" I got an enlarged picture of it, but today when I click on it I get the Halal Food Cart! (Is the "different kind of cake" just a Philly Cheewe Steak?!)
what's with the pictures?
every time, on any computer, i click a picture to view (this site only) i get a bunch of foreign characters such as...
" ?mOˎðO?˴ /ש횦a?d??Wwl??Ȍ۶ ۩ؘ?郮?̈́뎟?녡$ɒUY??6t JQ똩?S
what's with the pictures?
every time, on any computer, i click a picture to view (this site only) i get a bunch of foreign characters such as...
" ?mOˎðO?˴ /ש횦a?d??Wwl??Ȍ۶ ۩ؘ?郮?̈́뎟?녡$ɒUY??6t JQ똩?S
Drew- Your computer is the problem. No doubt you're running AOL on an e-machine, so go out and get the money-cost variety and come back.
Although "kind" should be plural in the last item, going by the German translations, I think what is really broken is the English translastion of the first items. I think it should be "cookies."
Uhhh...
What happened to my comment???
I cant really remember what I said but I still cant see the care.
PS now I go to boarding School in Thailand so maybe I should post some "engrish"
Wilco van Duinkerken is such a cool name. I wish my name was Wilco van Duinkerken. Wilco van Duinkerken.
"what's with the pictures?
every time, on any computer, i click a picture to view (this site only) i get a bunch of foreign characters such as...
" ?mOˎðO?˴ /ש횦a?d??Wwl??Ȍ۶ ۩ؘ?郮?̈́뎟?녡$ɒUY??6t JQ똩?S what's wrong?"
---
It happens to me as well, but it works as soon as I reseat the network card.
There's all kinds of mistakes on that sign - the first 'cake' on it should be cookie, the second item should be croissant (well, I guess it can be roll as well...), and the third should be 'different kindS of cake'. But it's really not that bad - I've seen worst.
PS: Slovenia and Slovakia are different countries, Slovenian and Slovakian are different languages, and neither has much to do with the third world.
I confirm that the first English translation is broken. Judging by the German and Italian ones, it should read "cookie", not "cake". (or maybe "cookies", I'm not sure because my German is below minimum decency level - the Italian one reads "cookie" anyway).
As for the last one, I have no clue since the Italian translation is not in the picture.
although I agree with SAM's comment i'd like to point out yet another piece to this puzzle of blunders.
since when is a cake (EN) a biscotto (IT)?! One is a biscuit and the other one is a, well, is a cake.
I'd still be grateful for the translation though. Hey at least you can be reasonably sure you're ordering some sort of cake or biscuit not a blood sausage with sauerkraut for dessert...
not broken - just partially engrish, slightly hitalian, and partly germank... surely better than nothing at all.
I think they mean "cupcake", as far as I can tell from the German.
The part about the "licked bread", as a previous commenter pointed out already, is of course hilarious.
Reminds me, didn't Bush go to Slovenia last year, and say how glad he was to be in Slovakia? *sigh*
And the language is "Slovene".
Just for the info ...
piskot = cookie
rogljic = could be roll, our dictionary says crescent-shaped milk-roll :)
torta = cake
piskot is a special type of biscuit which is often used when making italian tiramisu cake (very dry biscuit roughly in shape of a bone whch is dipped in coffe and then covered with cream); as for "razne torte" it means different kinds of cakes, last word "torte" is a special kind of cake (like birthday cakes, round with fills and glazing all over it), we have distinction from cake (which is general designation for, well, cakes) and we have "torta" which should be translated more precisely into a "pie", but "pie" in english language is usually associated with plain cake like apple pie or something like that, while "torta" is more like celebratory cake like wedding or birthday cake (I am croatian and not slovenian, but this words are same in both languages)
Corrections:
Piškot = cookie
razne torte = different kinds of cakeS
(is that it should be in PLURAL)
... and stop make a big deal about such a mistake. What do you expect from a baker?
An average Slovenian speaks 2 foreign languages (English, German, French, Italian, Hungarian).
I wonder how many Americans or British speak a foreign language???
AND YES - SLOVENIA IS NOT SLOVAKIA - I see you bitching about a grammatical error - and you can't even keep 2 countries apart - WHAT A HYPOCRISY...
Slovenia/Slovakia mix-up
"AND YES - SLOVENIA IS NOT SLOVAKIA - I see you bitching about a grammatical error - and you can't even keep 2 countries apart - WHAT A HYPOCRISY..."
Seconded.
I just came back from a trip that took me to Slovenia and Slovakia, amongst other places. I was constantly impressed at the ability of people, ordinary people, to speak many languages - these wasn't just university trained linguists, but absolutely everyone. It does make one rather ashamed at the lack of effort that is made in England to teach foreign languages. Yes, some menus are laughably translated, but if you have a chat to the waiter you can almost always clear the matter up. Great countries, both of them, apart from some of the drivers....
hehe ...
cool :) and nice to see that I am not the only one seeing translation errors in my home country
since the last post spoke about Slovenian drivers ;) ...you could check this out --> http://www.carniola.org/theglory/2005/10/slovenia_europe.htm
... lep pozdrav ;)
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Previous: Halal food cart sign | Main | Next: (Not broken) Consumer tech guide
hehe the umlaut over the o looks like a face.
only barely broken, more engrish than anything.
Posted by: gmangw at October 19, 2005 12:21 AM