Translation Train Wreck: Difference between revisions

* In a Japanese edition of ''[[Sukeban Deka]]: Codename = Asamiya Saki'' (otherwise known in the West as ''Yo-Yo Girl Cop'') the English subtitles seem to have been generated by attempting to translate the individual words directly into English, including the names. The seemingly meaningless phrase "of temple" keeps recurring in the dialogue—as a translation of Asamiya, the heroine's family name.

* One bootleg of ''[[Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom]]'' contained subtitling errors that, while pretty minor compared to other examples on this list, are still pretty amusing. For instance, the vase the Indy finds at the start of the film is referred to as being from "Mong's Dynasty," Short Round became "Shoot Ground" and the Kali-worshiping Thuggees became the "Sacky Cult," who we are told made human sacrifices in the name of "Colly."

** And [http://akusoft.livejournal.com/68912.html an equally hilarious Chinese bootleg] of ''Goblet of Fire'', featuring such oddly named characters as Khalifa, 61516, and Lunduidu Sha MA Maxim. And [http://akusoft.livejournal.com/72873.html this one] of ''Order of the Phoenix'', likely from the same people. Both translate Azkaban as "marriage". [[Married... with Children|Al Bundy]] would approve. The ''Phoenix'' one manages to translate "I" as either "France" or "the French" and "it" as "hypothermia", resulting in the line "Hypothermia should be fun."

** The ''[http://akusoft.livejournal.com/62138.html Prisoner of Azkaban]'' ended up with a perfectly accurate subtitle script... for the [[Dolph Lundgren]] movie ''Detention''.

* In a Chinese bootleg of the film version of ''[[A Series of Unfortunate Events]]'', the children are on a raft whilst leeches are approaching. However, the Chinese subs have them screaming "The Lychee Trees are coming!"

* A Chinese bootleg DVD of ''[[Ip Man|Ip Man 2]]'' is flooded with subtitle errors, some of which are ridiculously bad. A few notable ones include calling Ip Man "Leaf Question" (The characters are "葉問" and do translate literally as such), and another scene where the subbers apparently just stopped caring and substituted "fubu fu" for another line. Of course, [[Hilarity Ensues]].

** One character, apropos of nothing, shouts out "It must be sedge!" in the midst of a dialogue due to the translator confusing ''sugei'' (awesome) with ''suge'' (sedge).

** A character originally known as "T-Fanger" is translated into "T-Mildew"; the translator apparently having mistaken "fanger" for "fungus".

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' skirts on this trope, especially in the tutorials: "Select the Job command that bundles up the Action Ability by the Job in the unit's sub-command". It also introduces creatures named "Cuar" (coeurl) and a dance named "Wiznaibus" (with knives).

** Dragons attacking with "[[Breath Weapon|Fire Bracelet]]" deserve a mention.

** Latin is very often one of the first languages to go horribly and irreparably wrong. It is very obvious to teachers if you have been using translation software on it. For example, the English sentence "I went home and I lay down on the couch to happily read poems, drink wine, and eat grapes." Is properly translated into Latin as "Ivi ad domo et recumbi supra lecto ut laeta legem poemas, ut bibem vinum, et ut edem uvas." Google translate gives the Latin as "Domum meam pono toro feliciter legant et carmina vino et comede uvas." This in English comes out as "My house I place for couch luckily they lay and songs for wine and comedy grapes." The grammar isn't even remotely correct.

** Frustrated fans of [[No Export for You|Japanese-only visual novels]] sometimes make use of automated tools to extract the text from the game and feed it into babelfish like translators. '''Good luck''' making any sense of the results.

* [http://my.opera.com/TheEve/albums/showpic.dml?album=630163&picture=8614669 Fire extinguisher sign says "Hand Grenade"]

* Thanks to the United States' large Hispanic minority and membership in NAFTA, it is common to find Spanish translations of English text in products, government forms, signs, etc. However, the quality of the translations varies drastically. An example: [http://www.flickr.com/photos/codeman38/3701243783/ the packaging for a set of name-brand computer speakers] translates "crisp and realistic sound reproduction" as "la patata frita y la reproducción sano práctica"—that is, "potato chip and practical healthy reproduction". Oh, and with the wrong gender on "healthy".