# The good, bad, and awful of translations One of the benefits of learning another language is that you get to see how words are used (and abused) when things are translated from one language to another. Sometimes it's an interesting insight into cultural awareness. And sometimes, it's a potential matter of life and death. Read on: ## The Good ![[español-caliente.jpg]] ↑ Culturally-aware translation. McDonald's, California, 2024. In this case, the English says "Caution I'm hot", but the Spanish says "Caution it's hot". That's because "Caution I'm hot", in Spanish, comes across as "Caution I'm sexy". And even though coffee can be sexy, especially early in the morning, that's not in McDonald's brand image. ## The Bad ![[español-home-depot.jpg]] ↑ When there are zero forks given about the translation. Home Depot, California, 2024. What it says: "CuĖas Compuestas. A Prueba d Agua, interperie e insectos. Hechas eulos Estados Unidos con 100% Plastico y madera recicladas." What it probably should have said: "Cuñas compuestas a prueba de agua, intemperie e insectos. Hechas en los Estados Unidos con plástico y madera 100% reciclados." | On the box | Correct | But WHY? | | ----------- | ----------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | CuĖas | Cuñas | Potentially because the original file was in an older US or Western European code page format, and opened on a computer in Eastern Europe or Russia[^1], which kind of breaks the "Made in the USA" story. | | Compuestas. | compuestas | Lowercase and no period because this is part of a full sentence. It could be argued that this should read "cuñas de composite", meaning "wedges made of composite (material)". | | A Prueba d | a prueba de | Lowercase 'a' because it's still part of the sentence. And that missing 'e'? No idea. | | interperie | intemperie | Proofreader was out for the day? Mis-read bad handwriting? | | eulos | en los | That's got to be due to mis-reading a handwritten "n" as "u" | | Plastico | plástico | Lowercase 'p' because, yes, we're in the middle of a sentence. And the accent mark was just too much to handle, I guess. | | recicladas | reciclados | "Plástico" is masculine, so the word "reciclados" needs to match its gender, regardless of the feminine "madera" | ## The Awful ![[español-electrical.jpg]] ↑ In-n-Out Burger, California In this case, the English says "Electrical shock will occur" (imminent danger!) – but the Spanish version is not as worried for the safety of the worker, saying just "electrical shock might occur" (a generalized safety precaution). [^1]: The character "ñ" (n tilde) might be incorrectly encoded as "Ė" (E with dot above) due to the original being in CP-437 (DOS US) or CP-1252 (Windows Western European) where "ñ" is encoded as 0xF1, then it was decoded in CP-852 (DOS Eastern European) or CP-866 (DOS Russian) where 0xF1 is the encoding for "Ė". ∎