Lost in translation

[ChrisGreaves]

I have a vague feeling that this is a "repeat", but here goes:-

One road sign in Wales made national headlines in 2008 when local council officials sought a translation for a road sign that was meant to say: “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only.”

Their mistake was to email the in-house translation service and not scrutinize its reply too closely.

Officials requested a sign that read: “Nid wyf yn y swyddfa ar hyn o bryd. Anfonwch unrhyw waith i’w gyfieithy.”

Only later did they realize that is the Welsh for: “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated.”

Note that both the original text and the returned text maintained a two-sentence structure, which helps a human to accept the translation.
Of course most people driving along the highway are not in the office at the moment, so the poor sign was probably appropriate anyway ...

Reported in CNN
Cheers, Chris

[HansV]

It's still funny!

(Also here and here)

[ChrisGreaves]

(Also here and here)

Thanks Hans.
It's good to know that there's noting wrong with my, wrong with my, my, er, ...

Cheers, Chris