Oh, the joys of spam. Mostly of course it's deadly dull - nothing but invitations to play at this or that online casino, notifications from banks I've never joined, and endless offers 'guaranteed' to increase my, erm, length. (One of these days I really must call their bluff on that, but that's another story.)But every now and then there's a real gem in my spam box, presumably thanks to online translation software.
Yesterday it was the turn of this: "Luxury turkey escapes"
I wondered why anyone would want to tell me that their top-flight (sorry) pet bird had flown the coop, and had visions of the turkey concerned wandering down the road thumbing a lift to Manchester for the weekend. And then I realised it was advertising Turkish holidays.
Once I'd finished giggling I deleted the post along with all the rest, but it really brightened up my day. To whoever sent the email - thanks for the laugh!
2 comments:
I have a file full of terrific examples of translation howlers (including some from my own students when I used to teach French). I think they're great - they liberate language, sometimes creating truly poetic, if bizarre, concepts or, as in your turkey case, things. I think I'll follow your lead and post a wee blog about some of them.
I'll watch out for those. I always love a good howler. :)
Post a Comment