Translation fun!

Made me giggle - but Tudur usually does!

Item from The Daily Post

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Yup. This circles around the social media very sidely and fast. :slight_smile: I’ve seen it quite many times this week … To be honest, didn’t know what to think at all. …

I was shocked by the article referenced within that quote, about a major company saying an address in Llanfair p.g. doesn’t exist, so they couldn’t deliver there!! They seem to have said they wanted an address in English!!! Postcode was no good it seems!! And it didn’t occur to them that local delivery folk actually speak the local language!!!

I put this into google translate and got this out:

The owners will not accept any liability for loss or any vehicle or property damage done to them here.

This is what I put in:

Ni fydd y perchnogion yn derbyn unrhyw gyfrifoldeb dros golli cerbyd neu eiddo neu unrhyw niwed a wneir iddynt yma.

Shared this story myself on Facebook (via WalesOnline) this morning!
But I do think Tudur has made a very valid point with this. I drive around Cardiff virtually every day and I read these signs. The ones with the mistakes - sometimes even spelling mistakes - stick out like a sore thumb to me now! For example, in Llanrumney, there are chicanes that give priority to one direction of traffic. The direction that gives way asks so in Welsh, but instead of starting with “Ildiwch i’r cerbydau…” it’s spelt as “Lldiwch i’r cerbydau…”. This is a permanent sign!! There are others around Cardiff too, and some that make no sense in Welsh, but these are mainly temporary signs.
It can’t be too difficult to find a Welsh speaker who will translate these properly… unless they charge too much for this service. But using an online translator service without checking the translation is lazy and sloppy. Fair play, at least they’re trying to cater for Welsh speakers, but it’s embarrassing when their translations end up on the Arwyddion Cymraeg Gwael Facebook page or the next “Sgymraeg” book!

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One reason I don’t care for sans-serif fonts. They just thought they were properly capitalizing it. :laughing:

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Another howler today

Funnily enough i mentioned the lack of welsh on their service in August!

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I’ve always remembered the advice I was given early on about the importance of getting ‘hwyr’ right… “because you really don’t want to be saying ‘sorry mod i’n hwyr’ without the y in there” … :joy:

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That looks like a genuine learner’s mistake, so we of all people should show some sympathy. Nevertheless, with something as important as this, getting it checked is of crucial importance. There’s no shame in getting someone else give your text a once-over before committing it to posterity.

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This looked like a good place for this set of imaginative translations: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cymrufyw/43975789

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