As my blog turns ten years old next week and I’m flying over to Vienna on Sunday, I thought it might be nice to give a little fodder to my “Lost in Translation” series of posts, where I present some amusing and ridiculous attempts by companies to translate content from German to English. Whether it’s…
Category: Lost in Translation
Lost in Translation Series: The Actual Information
Spotted on a board at the Wien-Speising station of the Vienna S-Bahn that informs riders of service changes. The text reads: Dear Passengers, Planning your travel please consider the actual information. The actual is probably the result of a bad attempt by the ÖBB (which runs the S-Bahn) to translate aktuell, which means current. However,…
Lost in Translation Series: Translation Fun at the Buffet
Lost in Translation Series: “The Eating Version”
This is without a doubt the most obscure and just plain horrible translation I’ve found so far for my Lost in Translation Series. What sets this translation, found on a card at a Düsseldorf International Airport bistro, apart, is that I can’t see how the translation came about! Some translation program or reference book must…
Lost in Translation Series: “Happy New Jear”
Ahhhh, the Wiener Linien… Perpetrators of two out of the three sightings involved in my “Lost in Translation” series so far. Here’s the third, and possibly worst one! “Happy New Jear”!? Everyone knows this… Come on! You could have given all eight million plus Austrians a multiple choice quiz on this one and I bet…
Lost in Translation Series: “Here Stops the Christmas Tram”
This past summer I began posting examples of botched translations I stumbled upon around Vienna. First there was the city’s public transit operator, Wiener Linien, which posted thousands of signs in ugly English. There was also the city’s international tennis tournament that “went a noun.” Today my friend Kathi sent me a photo she took…