#Fail Archives

10 Hilarious Translation Fails From 2018

Published On - June 14, 2018

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail, Translation Fail

10 Hilarious Translation Fails From 2018

Can you believe 2018 is already half over? A lot can happen in six short months, so it’s high time we took a look back at some of the funniest translation errors that have made us laugh this year. K International presents, for your amusement, the top 10 funniest translation fails of 2018 (...

Published On - August 31, 2015

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail, Translation Fail

Funniest Translation Mistakes of 2015 (So Far)

Can you believe we’re over halfway through 2015? Me neither. It’s been a great year for translation mistakes so far, so let’s take a look at some of the funniest translation errors and gaffes to date: Please Don’t Eat the Carpet The staff at Chennai Airport in India were just...

Published On - June 24, 2015

Richard Brooks Language Blog, Language HumourTags: #Fail, Funny, Google translate

28 Signs we didn’t Translate

Something tells me the translations of the following 28 signs are not quite right. Its was an accident Anyone missed a foot?...

Published On - December 9, 2014

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail, Translation Fail

Badly Translated DVD Covers

Pretty sure all of these are bootlegs. But they’re funny none the less. Ladies and Gents here are my favourite DVD cover bad translations. Loin King II. ‘not as good as the first one, but ok’. 50 Fist Dates Drew Barrymore’s face says it all. That’s the last time she&#82...

Translation Fails in the Wild A Trip to the Asian Dollar Store

Published On - September 1, 2014

Cecilia M'Bengue Labelling, Language BlogTags: #Fail, Bad translation, Packaging Translation

Translation Fails: A Trip to the Asian Dollar Store

Near my house, there is a small shopping centre dominated by Asian-owned businesses. There is a Thai restaurant, an Asian market, a Taekwondo studio…and a “dollar store” featuring a variety of cheap goods, mostly made in China. I love the Asian dollar store. They have everything:...

Published On - August 5, 2014

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail, Language learning

Blogger Fired for Writing About Homophones

Tim Torkildson, a writer hired to manage a blog for a Utah language learning school, got his 15 minutes of fame last week after the language school fired him for writing a post about homophones. “Homophones” are simply words that sound the same, like “read” and “reed&#8...

Published On - November 22, 2013

Richard Brooks Labelling, Language Blog, Language HumourTags: #Fail, Food, Funny, packaging, Retail

10 Food packs we DIDN’T translate

Translating food packaging isn’t easy – we should know because we do over a thousand products a week. These guys have got it so wrong its funny but could you imagine your product on shelf saying something stupid in a different language? Nor could we, give us a call and we’ll sort i...

Published On - September 6, 2012

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail

McDonald’s Botches Hmong Billboard

McDonald’s ended up with Egg McMuffin on its face after it attempted to reach out to St. Paul, Minnesota’s Hmong community with two new billboards. The billboards in question were meant to encourage local Hmong residents to patronize McDonald’s for breakfast, using the slogan &#822...

Published On - August 24, 2012

Richard Brooks Language BlogTags: #Fail, Google translate, Spanish

Newspaper Discovers Limits of Google Translate

In the United States, Spanish-speaking Latinos are a rapidly growing demographic. Naturally, some news organizations cater to them with Spanish-language editions, especially online. However, according to Fox News, when the Hartford Courant decided to follow suit, they did not hire a translator, choo...