translation

The brain has a hard time hopping between languages. Inevitably, brain farts occur. What begins as a humorous enough Tumblr thread about when you can tell that a bilingual character was clearly written by someone who is not a bilingual person, evolves into an even funnier thread about the various blunders that can occur in the bilingual realm. For some more gold from Tumblr, check out this Tumblr thread about the wild cons that people were able to pull off just by having complete, unwavering confidence. 

Translation fails inspire all kinds of hilarious confusion between two perfectly rational human beings. In this case, we have a customer unknowingly repeatedly pleading for nothing at all. If you're the bartender on the other side of that mishap, do you let the oblivious stupidity persist, or do you correct the translation fail as soon as possible? Could be a tough call if you end up wanting to have some fun with it. 

Very curious as to what the difference in taste is between the chicken and the real chicken. These menu fails really go to show that a mere letter can make a world of a difference. 

Stylistically speaking, it's probably more important to the wearer in these case just to have English on the shirt than to care about what it actually means. It's kinda like when someone gets a tattoo in a language they don't understand. They think means "energy" but really it means "steak and eggs." Literal translations in any language can turn into beautiful nonsense.

In this wide world, we see a lot of hilarious translations and translation fails. Languages are complex and hard to understand completely. These frustratingly interesting observations on language and silly literal translations are a good example of that. This can come to a head when overzealous tourists try to get a tattoo in not only a language they don't understand, but in characters that are also completely foreign to them. Case in point, you don't want to misstep and end up as the "goldfish man"

We know that languages are all weird, and the one we use can be particularly confusing, but that can make it a more fun and nuanced thing to explore. We're all for seeing some creative uses and misuses of the English language. If you just wanna see people totally suck at English, then here are people who failed at using the English language.

Learning the words for things in other languages can be particularly eye opening. From overly literal German translations like "hand shoes" to more poetic euphemisms you'd never think you'd hear, every culture has come up with it's own particular brand of funny words for things. For more, here are non-native English speakers sharing common phrases they wish we had.

When Google translate fails, we get these kinds of masterpieces. 

What a concept. This tweet from MaglioJen popped off featuring the translated lyrics to Smash Mouth's late 90's, early 00's anthem "All Star." The thing was originally translated by Isaac Mayer and he even performed the Aramaic version on Youtube. Still sounds like a pretty damn great song no matter the language.

These translations will wax fish the if you can whether a misspelling is in the photo. Clothes are the subject to which donut.

It's true, you shouldn't expect people to speak perfect English everywhere in their world. That said these translations are light years away from perfect.

Signs are brimming with the fun. Others are in different forms. How do they whereabouts go? Don't ask for humor when it here is.

These people tried their very bestest, and it wasn't quite good enough. Nothing melts our icy hearts like the hilarity of someone clearly failing at translation; it usually results in some seriously ridiculous sentences. 

Sometimes you just don't have the time to let paint dry or edit anything at all.

Guys. Stop eating carpet. 

The NBA is big in China, and fans have taken to giving players complex and ridiculous nicknames over the years. Historian Nick Kapur explained this on twitter.