| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6] > | Off topic: Restaurant menu translation problems! Thread poster: Catharine Cellier-Smart
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Carola BAYLE 
France
Local time: 01:19
Member (2005)
German to French
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| Icicles to the gratin | Aug 31, 2012 |
In general, in Spain I read the Spanish menus but often read the translations as well, just for fun.
I could imagine that the "Mussels to the Sailor's Blouse" might be "Moules marinières", but had absolutely no clou what "Icicles to the gratin", translated in French with "Glaçons au gratin" could mean. In the Spanish menu I found the answer: "Cannellonis"!!!
But worth was the menu in a German 4stars hotel, which at least had made the effort to do a French translation, but my... See more In general, in Spain I read the Spanish menus but often read the translations as well, just for fun.
I could imagine that the "Mussels to the Sailor's Blouse" might be "Moules marinières", but had absolutely no clou what "Icicles to the gratin", translated in French with "Glaçons au gratin" could mean. In the Spanish menu I found the answer: "Cannellonis"!!!
But worth was the menu in a German 4stars hotel, which at least had made the effort to do a French translation, but my husband wondered what "Riz de gibier" might be.
Wild in German can be both, wild as savage or wild as venaison, here it was wild rice which became rice of venaison. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 01:19
French to English
That's put me right off canneloni! and to think I was shocked by the jumped apples!
(pommes sautées in French, i.e. sautéed potatoes)
Mind you, I used to translate menus for a high-class caterer and was unable to find out whether a particular type of "pomme" was apple or potato. Since the client didn't bother to answer my question, I decided to go for apple on the grounds that the caterer often put fruit in savoury dishes. I later found out in the cours... See more That's put me right off canneloni! and to think I was shocked by the jumped apples!
(pommes sautées in French, i.e. sautéed potatoes)
Mind you, I used to translate menus for a high-class caterer and was unable to find out whether a particular type of "pomme" was apple or potato. Since the client didn't bother to answer my question, I decided to go for apple on the grounds that the caterer often put fruit in savoury dishes. I later found out in the course of a conversation with a chef that it was actually potato... ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Cannibalism? | Aug 31, 2012 |
Seen on a menu in The Gambia last year:
Grilled aborigines with parsley and garlic croutons.
Mmm. I thought cannibalism had died out in Africa. Didn't order it.
| | | | | Foreign signs | Aug 31, 2012 |
Culled from: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/foreign-signs.html
In a Tokyo Hotel:
Is forbitten to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read notis.
In another Japanese hotel room:
Please to bathe inside the tub.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that... See more Culled from: http://www.gnu.org/fun/jokes/foreign-signs.html
In a Tokyo Hotel:
Is forbitten to steal hotel towels please. If you are not person to do such thing is please not to read notis.
In another Japanese hotel room:
Please to bathe inside the tub.
In a Bucharest hotel lobby:
The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.
In a Leipzig elevator:
Do not enter the lift backwards, and only when lit up.
In a Belgrade hotel elevator:
To move the cabin, push button for wishing floor. If the cabin should enter more persons, each one should press a number of wishing floor. Driving is then going alphabetically by national order.
In a Paris hotel elevator:
Please leave your values at the front desk.
In a hotel in Athens:
Visitors are expected to complain at the office between the hours of 9 and 11 A.M. daily.
In a Yugoslavian hotel:
The flattening of underwear with pleasure is the job of the chambermaid.
In a Japanese hotel:
You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid.
In the lobby of a Moscow hotel across from a Russian Orthodox monastery:
You are welcome to visit the cemetery where famous Russian and Soviet composers, artists, and writers are buried daily except Thursday.
In an Austrian hotel catering to skiers:
Not to perambulate the corridors in the hours of repose in the boots of ascension.
On the menu of a Swiss restaurant:
Our wines leave you nothing to hope for.
On the menu of a Polish hotel:
Salad a firm's own make; limpid red beet soup with cheesy dumplings in the form of a finger; roasted duck let loose; beef rashers beaten up in the country people's fashion.
In a Hong Kong supermarket:
For your convenience, we recommend courageous, efficient self-service.
Outside a Hong Kong tailor shop:
Ladies may have a fit upstairs.
In a Bangkok dry cleaner's:
Drop your trousers here for best results.
Outside a Paris dress shop:
Dresses for street walking.
In a Rhodes tailor shop:
Order your summers suit. Because is big rush we will execute customers in strict rotation.
Similarly, from the Soviet Weekly:
There will be a Moscow Exhibition of Arts by 15,000 Soviet Republic painters and sculptors. These were executed over the past two years.
In an East African newspaper:
A new swimming pool is rapidly taking shape since the contractors have thrown in the bulk of their workers.
In a Vienna hotel:
In case of fire, do your utmost to alarm the hotel porter.
A sign posted in Germany's Black Forest:
It is strictly forbidden on our black forest camping site that people of different sex, for instance, men and women, live together in one tent unless they are married with each other for that purpose.
In a Zurich hotel:
Because of the impropriety of entertaining guests of the opposite sex in the bedroom, it is suggested that the lobby be used for this purpose.
In an advertisement by a Hong Kong dentist:
Teeth extrcted by the latest Methodists.
A translated sentence from a Russian chess book:
A lot of water has been passed under the bridge since this variation has been played.
In a Rome laundry:
Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
In a Czechoslovakian tourist agency:
Take one of our horse-driven city tours—we guarantee no miscarriages.
Advertisement for donkey rides in Thailand:
Would you like to ride on your own ass?
On the faucet in a Finnish washroom:
To stop the drip, turn cock to right.
In the window of a Swedish furrier:
Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.
On the box of a clockwork toy made in Hong Kong:
Guaranteed to work throughout its useful life.
Detour sign in Kyushi, Japan:
Stop: Drive Sideways.
In a Swiss mountain inn:
Special today—no ice cream.
In a Bangkok temple:
It is forbidden to enter a woman even a foreigner if dressed as a man.
In a Tokyo bar:
Special cocktails for the ladies with nuts.
In a Copenhagen airline ticket office:
We take your bags and send them in all directions.
On the door of a Moscow hotel room:
If this is your first visit to the USSR, you are welcome to it.
In a Norwegian cocktail lounge:
Ladies are requested not to have children in the bar.
At a Budapest zoo:
Please do not feed the animals. If you have any suitable food, give it to the guard on duty.
In the office of a Roman doctor:
Specialist in women and other diseases.
In an Acapulco hotel:
The manager has personally passed all the water served here.
In a Tokyo shop:
Our nylons cost more than common, but you'll find they are best in the long run.
From a Japanese information booklet about using a hotel air conditioner:
Cooles and Heates: If you want just condition of warm in your room, please control yourself.
From a brochure of a car rental firm in Tokyo:
When passenger of foot heave in sight, tootle the horn. Trumpet him melodiously at first, but if he still obstacles your passage then tootle him with vigor.
Two signs from a Majorcan shop entrance:
English well talking.
Here speeching American.
Have a nice weekend!
Regards,
N. Raghavan ▲ Collapse
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| eggs are confused in Brazil | Sep 1, 2012 |
I saw quite a few amusing translations [sic] on menus in Brazil (does anyone remember the reassuring sign in a restaurant window at Largo Carioca, "Speak English We"?). However, in contrast to what some people mentioned above, the restaurant owners were always delighted with my offer to help them improve their translations -- and always offered me a nice dinner on the house in thanks. Brazilian hospitality is amazing.
I was stymied, however, by the item on one menu in the Northeas... See more I saw quite a few amusing translations [sic] on menus in Brazil (does anyone remember the reassuring sign in a restaurant window at Largo Carioca, "Speak English We"?). However, in contrast to what some people mentioned above, the restaurant owners were always delighted with my offer to help them improve their translations -- and always offered me a nice dinner on the house in thanks. Brazilian hospitality is amazing.
I was stymied, however, by the item on one menu in the Northeast called "Confused eggs." What in the world could that be?, I asked, eggs with an identity crisis? So they offered to cook some up to show me..... ten minutes later, what was set down on the table in front of me but a plate of scrambled eggs ("ovos mexidos") .....
[Edited at 2012-09-01 03:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Google translate | Sep 1, 2012 |
Google translate seems to be improving all the time, as I noticed when I tried the following:
"crottin de chèvre chaud" = "warm goat cheese"
"souris d'agneau rôtie" = "lamb shank roasted" (wrong syntax but correct words).
HOWEVER:
"souris d'agneau rôtie au thym" = "mouse Roasted lamb with thyme"...
Strange...
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One of the best has to be a menu item in a little restaurant round the corner here in Palermo:
'risotto al tartufo'
literally 'truffle risotto'
translated as 'rice with hypocrites'!
| | | | | From the drinks section... | Sep 1, 2012 |
...of an upmarket restaurant in Andalusia, "Vino de la Casa" was "He/She came from the house"
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marziamar
Local time: 01:19
Spanish to Italian
| Spanish: Pimientos de Padrón | Sep 1, 2012 |
The "pimientos de Padrón" are small green peppers from Padrón, in the north-west of Spain. On the other hand, "padrón " is the municipal census, so unfortunately the translation "Pepper of Census" can be find on many "english" menus in Spain
| | | | marziamar
Local time: 01:19
Spanish to Italian
| Google translator has replaced the niece who spent the summer au pair | Sep 1, 2012 |
Unfortunately, I am older than Tristan Jiménez, I am not astonished any more, but I can assure you that in the '80 the menues were translated into english by the niece who spent some months in London au pair, or into italian by the cousins who worked in Germany and had italian buddys working with them.
[Editado a las 2012-09-01 14:06 GMT]
| | | | | re spaghetti polonaise in Cyprus )) | Sep 1, 2012 |
Josephine bacon wrote:
I saw "spaghetti polonaise" on a menu in Cyprus.
And a "lamp chop" (instead of a lamb chop, LOL) is quite a commonplace dish here in Cyprus, too )) That's because the Cypriots do not have 'D' and 'B' sounds in their own language and apparently fail to distinguish them in other languages, too.
P.S. Oops, just noticed a post from vixen, who already mentioned it ))
[Edited at 2012-09-01 07:40 GMT]
| | | | | where do we stop... | Sep 1, 2012 |
I suppose there is something about the physicality of food and eating that makes the menu mistranslations particularly amusing. They so easily veer off target towards the erotic or the scatological.
poopy strudel (poppy-seed strudel - OK it's just a typo, not a mistranslation)
And a tin of sardines in tomato sauce was labelled on a supermarket shelf in Hungarian as "paradicsomos szar"
meaning "some shitty tomato stuff"
spaghetti wrapped in foil... See more I suppose there is something about the physicality of food and eating that makes the menu mistranslations particularly amusing. They so easily veer off target towards the erotic or the scatological.
poopy strudel (poppy-seed strudel - OK it's just a typo, not a mistranslation)
And a tin of sardines in tomato sauce was labelled on a supermarket shelf in Hungarian as "paradicsomos szar"
meaning "some shitty tomato stuff"
spaghetti wrapped in foil
And my favourite example of the carelessness some restaurant managers give to menus, was in a translation I was asked to do, for money, where one of the dishes was described as
"julienne vegetables stuffed with pancakes" (obviously it should be the other way round - i.e. spring rolls) ▲ Collapse
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| Meat served with bear | Sep 1, 2012 |
I too have offered to translate restaurant menus free and been turned down.....
Sometimes I just do it while I'm sitting waiting for my meal. I had fun with a dessert called "Soupe de Vieux Garçon" - Old Bachelor's Soup (fun compounded by the fact that Bachelors is a well known UK brand of soup.)
The proprietor explained that there was a local product called Confiture de Vieux Garçon and that her dessert was made using the same kind of fruit, but in a more liquid form..... ... See more I too have offered to translate restaurant menus free and been turned down.....
Sometimes I just do it while I'm sitting waiting for my meal. I had fun with a dessert called "Soupe de Vieux Garçon" - Old Bachelor's Soup (fun compounded by the fact that Bachelors is a well known UK brand of soup.)
The proprietor explained that there was a local product called Confiture de Vieux Garçon and that her dessert was made using the same kind of fruit, but in a more liquid form..... hence soup.
Another b / p problem this time from a German menu:
a meat dish topped with bear
I checked on the German menu - it was "birne" - pear ▲ Collapse
| | | | | cow language :)) | Sep 1, 2012 |
"Cow language" (translation from Russian говяжий язык)
I do not remember where I saw that on the menu, but it sure made me smile for the rest of the day )
| | | | Nazim
Local time: 03:19
English to Russian
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| Icecream matters | Sep 1, 2012 |
in assortment...
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