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Something I read recently dredged up an old, amusing memory, and I thought it might make a good thread topic:
When I was in high school, way back in the olden days before cell phones, I went on an exchange trip to France.
Each student was assigned to stay with a host family, and my very first night, the girl I was staying with suggested we go to the "fête." Now my French was fairly terrible, and I had no idea what a "fête" was, but rather than flip through my little dictionary, I figured I'd find out what it was when we got there, so off we went. Turned out it was just super-duper fun. It was like the entire town was hanging out together outdoors. There was food and lots of games to play, all for free, and I was like "WOW, France is AMAZING!"
So the next night, my host asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to do, and I immediately responded, "Let's go back to the "fête!" She proceeded to laugh herself silly as she explained that it was one night only.
... See, I STILL didn't know the larger meaning of the word itself, so I had no idea "fête" translated to "party." (In this particular case, it was a massive neighborhood block party sort of affair, hence everything being free) With no basis of reference, I legitimately thought this was how french teenagers spent all their summer evenings. I thought going to "the fête," was like going to the mall or the skating rink, and it was so, sooo much better than anything in my own boring little hometown (which had neither mall nor skating rink - the only real teenage hangout was a local video rental/music store that tolerated our presence).
That was my first experience with the amusing miscommunications that can arise from poor or absent translation skills, but it definitely wasn't the last. Heck, I've had mistranslations even when everyone involved was speaking the same language. Small regional tweaks can make for big changes in meaning.
So who else has a good story about a bad translation?
When I was in high school, way back in the olden days before cell phones, I went on an exchange trip to France.
Each student was assigned to stay with a host family, and my very first night, the girl I was staying with suggested we go to the "fête." Now my French was fairly terrible, and I had no idea what a "fête" was, but rather than flip through my little dictionary, I figured I'd find out what it was when we got there, so off we went. Turned out it was just super-duper fun. It was like the entire town was hanging out together outdoors. There was food and lots of games to play, all for free, and I was like "WOW, France is AMAZING!"
So the next night, my host asked if there was anything in particular I wanted to do, and I immediately responded, "Let's go back to the "fête!" She proceeded to laugh herself silly as she explained that it was one night only.
... See, I STILL didn't know the larger meaning of the word itself, so I had no idea "fête" translated to "party." (In this particular case, it was a massive neighborhood block party sort of affair, hence everything being free) With no basis of reference, I legitimately thought this was how french teenagers spent all their summer evenings. I thought going to "the fête," was like going to the mall or the skating rink, and it was so, sooo much better than anything in my own boring little hometown (which had neither mall nor skating rink - the only real teenage hangout was a local video rental/music store that tolerated our presence).
That was my first experience with the amusing miscommunications that can arise from poor or absent translation skills, but it definitely wasn't the last. Heck, I've had mistranslations even when everyone involved was speaking the same language. Small regional tweaks can make for big changes in meaning.
So who else has a good story about a bad translation?
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