Mistranslation/Cultural Oversight Friday, March 03, 2006
As mentioned previously, translation equivalents are always relative and influenced by social and cultural environments. We must be cautious in trying to find translation equivalents which are not always semantically equivalent, and may result in miscommunication.
There are examples of some blatant mistranslations/cultural oversights below. (some are from Axtell , Do's and Taboos of Hosting international visitors. NY:Wiley:2 1990)
An Ad by General Motors
The body of the car was translated into corpse of the car (Flemish)
An ad by Pepsi
Come alive with Pepsi => Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave (Taiwan)
Instruction/description on food packages
Besmear [sic] a backing pan with a good tomato sauce and after, dispose the cannelloni, lightly distanced between them.
The product can be preserved within eighteen months...Put in a sunless spot. The selected quality black sesame was grown at a place of mild geology and bracing climate...Its superior quality is indeed the most sufficient and balanced nutrient sources for the aged and young children. Please rest assured to eat it. These dried products have also the peculiarity of sweet, smelling, appetite, crispness, tempting taste. Providing many nutritive facts, vitamins, mineral necessary for the body, avoid the extra glucosa [sic].
(This item was published in SMH 29-11-05)
"The clio coddle menswear store in Shanghai has the most surreal sign in English I've ever encountered," writes Denis Martin, of Woolloomooloo. "It reads: 'Eternal gram putting to the trouble of gram and reaching uniqlle [sic] grade'."
These mistranslations surely would create a negative impact on, rather than enchance, the products they are attempting to market in these countries!
Each language articulates or organises the
world differently because different cultures take on different
emotions and attitudes when they conceptualise their experiences
or ideas and these are transmitted through their languages.
We must be equipped with an intercultural awareness besides
the language itself because target readers’ expectations
differ by their linguistic conventions as well as their cultural
norms... read more about this blog
