Lost in Translation

Last week in my world politics class we were discussing the main points of multinational relations and globalization. To make it more entertaining my professor read off a list of examples in which companies were advertising in other languages and made horrible errors in translation. 

Some of them were quite obviously mistakes:

Sweden: in the window of a Swedish furrier: Fur coats made for ladies from their own skin.

Russian/Russia: 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.

Romania: in a Bucharest hotel lobby: The lift is being fixed for the next day. During that time we regret that you will be unbearable.

Denmark: in a Copenhagen airline ticket office: We take your bags and send them in all directions.

An American T-shirt maker in Miami printed shirts for the Spanish market which promoted the Pope's visit. Instead of the desired "I Saw the Pope" in Spanish, the shirts proclaimed "I Saw the Potato".

English text on products made in Japan solely for Japanese consumers: 

Message printed on an eraser: "Mr. Friendly Quality Eraser. Mr. Friendly Arrived!! He always stay near you, and steals in your mind to lead you to a good situation.". On the bottom of the eraser is a further message: "We are ecologically minded. This package will self-destruct in Mother Earth."

In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.

Though others were potentially offensive:

When translated into Chinese, the Kentucky Fried Chicken slogan "finger-lickin' good" came out as "eat your fingers off".

In a Paris hotel elevator: Please leave your values at the front desk.

Italian/Italy: In a Rome laundry: Ladies, leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.

When Parker Pen marketed a ball-point pen in Mexico, its ads were supposed to say "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you". However, the company's mistakenly thought the Spanish word "embarazar" meant embarrass. Instead the ads said that "It wont leak in your pocket and make you pregnant".

Taiwan:  the translation of the Pepsi slogan "Come alive with the Pepsi Generation" came out as "Pepsi will bring your ancestors back from the dead".

Most of these were just humorous, but when we got to the pepsi one, and another one about a suntan lotion billboard in Saudi Arabia that had women in bikinis on it, i began to wonder how offended people might become over these translation errors. What if the advertisers violate their culture or values without even realizing it. This has a lot to do with perception of religion. Things still often get lost in translation between countries and cultures, this makes it difficult for us to completely understand each others beliefs.