Are there occasions when the translation in your native language from English doesn't make sense in a funny way? Would you like to share some examples?

I like to ask because there are times that other languages translate into English poorly and obvious that it is a literal translation. There are many times that figures of speech or phrases don't make sense when translated either. This sometimes provides some wholesome comic relief and a nice laugh occasionally.

For example I had a package of some connectors that had the company motto on it, it read:

It is not enough that we do our best, we must do what is required.

I really don't use any translator unless it's absolutely necessary. And even then I translate it to english since nobody has bothered to make well working translator for language that has only 5.4 million native speakers.

I suppose as a native English speaker I sometimes fall into the well known trap of expecting other people to speak my language, rather than the other way around. I have always had great difficulty trying to learn other languages; we did French at school and I still retain a modicum of it, but I think I'd have to go and live there for a while to become competent. I can read it to a certain extent, although it would take me a VERY long time to finish a book, and I wouldn't be able to speak it to someone or write in it.

I have the greatest difficulty with languages that don't use the same alphabet, such as Russian, Greek and Chinese/Japanese etc. I have nothing but praise for speakers of those languages that learn English (or any other language that uses English characters for that matter).

As regards use of language on a site like this, where the primary language is English, I would expect users to have at least a basic understanding of the language. If I were to join a French or German site, for example, then I would not expect everyone there to speak English just for my benefit. For that reason I do not read posts from people who post in their native language with no attempt to translate it into English first, expecting me to cut and paste it into a translator just to be able to read it.

Online translators are a mixed blessing. They can give you a basic idea of what someone is trying to say, but they can't replace knowledge of the language.

My native language is French. Sometimes, when reading a user manual in French, sentences don't make sense. Then I read that part in English and discover it is a translation error. Often, it makes for funny phrases.

One notable example is a pop-up toaster that has a feature where you can lift the handle further than it pops up to make it easier to retrieve a smaller piece of toast. The manual, in English, states that the lever has 'extra lift'. The French translation is 'ascenseur à pain'. The French word 'ascenseur' means 'elevator', or 'lift' in the UK. That is the essential of it. There were many other grammatical issues with that manual, which of course made it even more funny.

Sometimes, I read a manual in French, don't understand, switch to the English part, and comprehension is not better. Usually that means the manual has been written in an other language and both the French and the English are translated from it.

As for the people here who do not translate posts in English, I usually don't bother putting them through a translator so I end up not reading them. When something is posted for the general population of the site, I prefer it to be in English. Sometimes, but not very often, I will slip in a few phrases of French if the author of the thread is a French speaker, but out of politeness, I tend to stick with English. That way, it reaches a wider audience, which is what the comments here are all about.

Some of the more exasperating translation errors were in the instruction manuals for Japanese amateur radio equipment in the early 80's. They were awful, far worse than anything seen today. Fortunately, they've got better since 

Yeah, multiculturalism is a gift but for the sake of convenience, it's just far more easier if the site uses mainly one language and the posting user translates their foreign language messages to english before posting it. That way, only one user does the translation vs. That all the users would have to translate it when reading.

IMO this is the easiest way before translators get so good that communication between different languages is so fluent you don't notice the difference.

Depending on what browser you are using, for example Firefox with S3 translator app added to it you can have it automatically translate the text to English so it's really not to much effort, Chrome also does this, and to degree so does internet exploiter (A good program to down load better browsers,) and sometimes you don't even notice it except you can see the post twice in English if the user has put it in both languages..

And there is a few posts that are humorous when translated...

Jimmy Fallon on the Tonight Show will sometimes do a segment where they take a popular song, translate the lyrics into some random language using google translate, than translate it back into English.  Makes for some interesting and amusing results.

Google Translate Songs with Anne Hathaway

汉语我们中国人都觉得有点难，各种多音字和一词多义，不过毕竟汉语是我的母语，我也有权继承下去！我在韩国时听韩国人说汉语时那叫一个别扭啊，听起来特别尴尬！同样都是亚洲人，咋差距那么大呢？韩国以前还是用汉字的呢，韩国的历史建筑的牌匾上都是汉字的，也包括日本，看来汉语的确是世界上最难学的语言之一！

如果把中文翻译成英文看起来也稍微有点奇怪，但是还好英文翻译成中文并无大碍，我的浏览器都会自动把非中文网站全部翻译成中文的，我感觉很好！

Translation:

汉语我们中国人都觉得有点难，各种多音字和一词多义，不过毕竟汉语是我的母语，我也有权继承下去！我在韩国时听韩国人说汉语时那叫一个别扭啊，听起来特别尴尬！同样都是亚洲人，咋差距那么大呢？韩国以前还是用汉字的呢，韩国的历史建筑的牌匾上都是汉字的，也包括日本，看来汉语的确是世界上最难学的语言之一！

Chinese We all feel a little difficult, a variety of polyphonic words and a polysemous, but after all, Chinese is my native language, I also have the right to inherit! When I was in Korea, I was awkward when I heard Korean speak Chinese. Asians are also the same, how big gap? South Korea used to use Chinese characters, Korean history and architecture on the plaque are Chinese characters, including Japan, it seems that Chinese is indeed one of the most difficult language in the world!

如果把中文翻译成英文看起来也稍微有点奇怪，但是还好英文翻译成中文并无大碍，我的浏览器都会自动把非中文网站全部翻译成中文的，我感觉很好！

If it seems a little weird to translate Chinese into English, it is okay to translate English into Chinese. My browser will automatically translate all non-Chinese websites into Chinese. I feel good!


Just did this so people would not over look your comments Men of God..

Yeah, multiculturalism is a gift but for the sake of convenience, it's just far more easier if the site uses mainly one language and the posting user translates their foreign language messages to english before posting it. That way, only one user does the translation vs. That all the users would have to translate it when reading.

IMO this is the easiest way before translators get so good that communication between different languages is so fluent you don't notice the difference.

I agree entirely. I believe if you use a site that is mainly run in a language that is not your own, then it is for you to make the effort to translate your words into the site's native language, the onus should not be on that site's users to translate your words because you can't be bothered.

That's just my feeling, I've got no personal axe to grind against anybody, I just feel that it shouldn't be down to me. You want me to read what you have to say, make sure that I can. I wouldn't go onto a French or German or Chinese site and post in English, I'd make the effort.

All right. I did not take into account that some user is used an older computer , can not display Chinese, so I use my input method directly into English, meaning that I am typing Chinese, but input method it will automatically help me send out English!
  I don't know why I have to learn English in the course of Chinese students. although my parents have been learning English since their generation, they didn't learn English by force at that time, but by voluntary principle ，So people born in the 1980 s and 1990 s in China are going to have bad luck and begin compulsory English learning.
  But the truth is, English is like a demon to most Chinese people, you can never get rid of it. you can hardly use English in your daily life. it is useless to learn it. you don't plan to go abroad. why do you learn it? , and English scores are included in your total score, many people fail in English (including me) ，Although this time went to Korea to use English, but mainly still spoke Korean, therefore said that English for the majority of Chinese people are not important!

Please take a look at the screenshot, our mobile browser has translation function, just now I was using the computer to reply, so it is all displayed in Chinese, now I am using the phone browser sentence by sentence translation function to understand what you said.