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Wednesday, February 27, 2008

An oldie but a goodie

I left a comment on a blog I read yesterday, and I was told that the comment made the blog's author laugh until she cried. She suggested I write a complete post about the topic. Well, I already had, but I thought it would be fun to post it again for all those who missed it the first time. I originally posted this on Feb. 10. 2007 so it's been a year. Maybe I should repost it every year. We all need to laugh until we cry at least once a year! Enjoy!

Yesterday Brian went to the store to get some sodas. He came back with Diet Coke (of course!), lemon soda and apple soda. We had never tried the apple, and he thought it might taste a little like sparkling cider which we love. He was looking at the bottle and noticed it said "Elmali gazli icecek." That basically translates Apple Gassy drink. I just about died...mainly because he kept talking about what might happen to a person drinking apple gassy drink. For those of you who know Brian you can imagine what kinds of things he said and what kinds of faces he made. Now I'm sure if the drink was sold in America the translation would be more along the lines of "Apple Soda" or "Apple carbonated beverage" but it was funny translating it literally.

Anyway, it made me think about how many times things here are translated into English. Sometimes the translations are really good, and many times they are really funny! And then there are the times that they make absolutely no sense. The following paragraph is one of those times. These are the actual words written on a package for a loofah sponge. All spelling and punctuation errors are theirs - not mine! Some of you may have received this in an email from me not long after we moved to Turkey, but I think it is worth repeating! Read on!

Fiber Pumkin
Fiber pumkin is coming from cucurbite it's grouving up middle east of Turkey. If piell's up all poision bacterial after that you can use all fiber pumkin clean all bodies. It'll be marvellous for clean bodies it's finally end for celluite after that all bodies taking a breath. All of them making diffrent syle and sizes.
Use:
You'll use it with hot water and bath soap if you'll take a special pocket after push under the water it'll very naturel soft fiber pumkin. It's wont hurt all bodies. You can use all for faces cleaning. After all take bath you'll have to take very good bath.
Have a nice smooth and healthy life.

Are you kidding me? This makes no sense. You would think that if a person was going to try to sell something and wanted to use an English translation to tell how their product works or how wonderful the product is they would find a native English speaker to at least proofread the translation!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Too Funny!

HeyJoe said...

I'm searching for a link to an old column by SF columnist, Jon Carroll. You'll dig it. Stay tuned...

Natalie said...

witty - yep, makes me laugh every time!

heyjoe - i look forward to reading whatever it is. waiting patiently...

HeyJoe said...

Having trouble locating it. I even wrote to Jon Carroll himself asking if he knew where in his archives I could find it.

His response:

"not, alas, a clue."

Thanks for help jackass.

I'll keep searching....

Don't delete this.

Natalie said...

heyjoe - alas...

Loralee Choate said...

Hee Hee Hee.

Right now I am so craving a fizzy drink that I just might consider downing gassy apple drink.

Hee.

Natalie said...

loralee - i have to say the apple gassy drink was nasty. nothing at all like the sparkling apple cider that i love. the lemon gassy drink is yummy though! yummy!

Heather said...

you know i loved this!

Natalie said...

wishful - i know you did!