Lingusitics The Unintended Consequence of Language Translation

AI Thread Summary
A user shared their experience of receiving a 300-page manual in Japanese from a business partner, prompting them to use a translation tool to express confusion. The translation resulted in an unintended and awkward phrase about sexual intercourse. The discussion then shifted to humorous examples of poor translations, including a model RC airplane that had incorrect decals and a blurry label that failed to convey the intended message about fuel types. The conversation highlights the challenges and often comical outcomes of relying on automated translation tools for complex or technical documents.
Ivan Seeking
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A business partner sent me a manual that I need. It was 300 pages of Japanese. :rolleyes: So I used the google language tool to translate a response, that being, wtf is this?, but without the abbreviation, and in Japanese.

So I got this:
性交は何をこれであるか。

Returned upon reverse translation:
Is sexual intercourse what this?

Maybe that isn't the message that I wanted...?
 
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Oh, it gets better.

www.engrish.com

I once bought a model RC airplane of a F4U-Corsair, made in China.
corsairturning.jpg


The decals were supposed to say 'Tie Down', instead, they said 'The Down'. Also, there is a label that says 'Use type 100/110L Fuel' or something to that effect. I think the translator gave up because it said 'Use type 100/110L fuels airplane gasoline... and then the letters literally got blurry and random. :confused:
 
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Historian seeks recognition for first English king https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9d07w50e15o Somewhere I have a list of Anglo-Saxon, Wessex and English kings. Well there is nothing new there. Parts of Britain experienced tribal rivalries/conflicts as well as invasions by the Romans, Vikings/Norsemen, Angles, Saxons and Jutes, then Normans, and various monarchs/emperors declared war on other monarchs/emperors. Seems that behavior has not ceased.
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