Saturday, May 4, 2019

Funny mistake using Google translate

Translation mistake

May 5th - a lot of buzz about the National Small Business Week.

Godaddy is trying to grow its sales by all means. It keeps annoying its clients with their spammy emails. And it doesn't matter to them whether you unsubscribe - they will keep pushing their plain and unprofessionally composed marketing emails. This time this firm decided to join the National Small Business celebration by sending a similar marketing email about its so-called partner - Plant the Future.

The content of the email was poorly done. You can read it here: https://www.godaddy.com/garage/godaddy-plant-the-future-paloma-teppa/ But the company they advertised seemed interesting. After checking the company's works section, I stumbled upon this finding - here's a screenshot of it:


You don't have to be a linguist specializing in Slavic languages to regretfully discover yet another translation mistake done on what is supposed to be a welcome home sign of Midtown 29 condominium. The firm's website states that the custom moss mural (portrayed above) is supposed to "create a sense of home for their residents." The mural was installed in the lobby of the high-rise building in Miami. Well, it might help to create that sense of home to people speaking all those languages written on the sign except for those understanding the Russian language. Not because it goes last on the mural, but because it conveys nonsense. 

Here is why 

The phrase was supposed to mean Welcome home in all those languages. In Russian, the word "главная" translates to "main", "principal", etc. The Russian word "главная" can be translated as "home" only in one instance - home page of a website. And of course not home as in "the place where one lives permanently, as a member of a family or household."

I'm sure this mistake will give a lot of laughs and a sense of dealing with unprofessionals to those understanding the Russian language.

How to avoid this

To answer this question, one must see this:


Yes, if you input the word "Home" to the popular Google translate app, it will generate the exact word used by the condominium company. Even though Google translate got a lot better at doing its job, it still needs a lot of work and it surely makes mistakes. Even in simple words like "home". You can't fully rely on an online translation tool to make permanent signs like this. Instead, do a google search and look for professional Russian translation service. They won't charge you much to check on a single phrase - some might even do it free of charge. 

The Legend of the Russian Empire's Cast-Iron Medal for Heavy Drinkers

Here's an interesting fact about drunkards in the Russian Empire during the Peter the Great times. They were commonly referred to as ...