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Poll: What's the funniest or most embarrassing mistake you have made as a freelance language professional? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What's the funniest or most embarrassing mistake you have made as a freelance language professional?".
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There are typos that I often make. Fortunately, I always re-read my translations very carefully...
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Panicking about AI last year and paying for a year of ProZ membership 🙈😂
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| Getting carried away in interpreting... | Jul 25 |
I don't really interpret anymore, so this one is from the past, but every colleague who had ever been in my situation admitted to making the same funny mistake at least once. Imagine this: you are principally a simultaneous interpreter working in a booth, but you've been asked to interpret at a small meeting as an exception. The agenda is tight, so you use your skills to save everyone's time: you don't wait for people to finish their phrases but just speak in parallel with them. The conversation... See more I don't really interpret anymore, so this one is from the past, but every colleague who had ever been in my situation admitted to making the same funny mistake at least once. Imagine this: you are principally a simultaneous interpreter working in a booth, but you've been asked to interpret at a small meeting as an exception. The agenda is tight, so you use your skills to save everyone's time: you don't wait for people to finish their phrases but just speak in parallel with them. The conversation is intense, yet you manage to translate from language A to language B and from B to A smoothly and people do understand each other. And then eventually one of the participants starts talking to someone who speaks the same language... and you start "interpreting" from language A to language A, rephrasing the speaker's words to make them more understandable! ▲ Collapse
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| has happened a few times | Jul 26 |
1. (Years ago) Telling an Agency that few persons were posting Kudoz questions about terms from a test.... while I was given the same test at the same time. (was really puzzled, since the Agency expressly stated not disclosing any material)
And apparently the agency didn't like that at all... never heard of them again (!!)
2. (Recent past) Telling a client that source was "weird" or an expression was incoherent.... when actually, they were using neologisms (marketing ma... See more 1. (Years ago) Telling an Agency that few persons were posting Kudoz questions about terms from a test.... while I was given the same test at the same time. (was really puzzled, since the Agency expressly stated not disclosing any material)
And apparently the agency didn't like that at all... never heard of them again (!!)
2. (Recent past) Telling a client that source was "weird" or an expression was incoherent.... when actually, they were using neologisms (marketing material = that field is evolving really quickly bcs of new technologies & marketing strategies!)
Have a nice summer y'all! ▲ Collapse
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Gianni Pastore 
Italy
Local time: 20:32
Member (2007)
English to Italian
From "Kink regards" to "King regards" I got them all
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Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 20:32
Member (2009)
English to Croatian
+ ...
| se baisser vs. se baiser | Jul 26 |
An embarassing typo in French.
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Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 21:32
Member
English to Turkish
| Mixing up surnames | Jul 26 |
Years ago, when I first started freelancing, I entered a wrong surname in a court decree. I remember watching a Champions League qualifier the night before where a mean looking, ugly bastard by the name of 'Karakoç' came on as a substitute, and played particularly bad...
I had to translate that US court decree the next day where the defendant's or the plaintiff's name was 'Girginkoç'. I was told by the agency a few weeks later that the judge had had to cancel the trial because the name ... See more Years ago, when I first started freelancing, I entered a wrong surname in a court decree. I remember watching a Champions League qualifier the night before where a mean looking, ugly bastard by the name of 'Karakoç' came on as a substitute, and played particularly bad...
I had to translate that US court decree the next day where the defendant's or the plaintiff's name was 'Girginkoç'. I was told by the agency a few weeks later that the judge had had to cancel the trial because the name 'Karakoç' was written in places where it should have been 'Girginkoç'. I'm sure there must be a psychoanalytical definition for this kind of thing. That bastard never made it to the Fenerbahçe squad, and is now plying his trade in the lowest leagues, but he was nearly ending my translation career... ▲ Collapse
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Mónica Algazi
Uruguay
Local time: 15:32
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
| At a wedding ceremony | Jul 26 |
"The broom may kiss the gride." Laughter could be heard from miles away!
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One of the typos I make all the time is writing Cosnelho instead of Conselho. The other two I can’t repeat them here as they are both “gros mots” in Portuguese, but it has to do with writing the words ‘pauta’ and ‘pedido’, I'll leave it to your imagination and knowledge of the Portuguese language...
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| X-rated business text to proofread | Jul 26 |
Hard to think of any funny mistakes by myself because I tend to forget them ASAP to keep my sanity  But by far the funniest - and most shocking - mistake I ever saw in a text that I had to proofread was a copy-paste mistake by a translator who must have been seriously distracted during his work. He pasted something that looked like part of a profile text for a not too serious type of dating app (read: X-rated content) in a segment ... See more Hard to think of any funny mistakes by myself because I tend to forget them ASAP to keep my sanity But by far the funniest - and most shocking - mistake I ever saw in a text that I had to proofread was a copy-paste mistake by a translator who must have been seriously distracted during his work. He pasted something that looked like part of a profile text for a not too serious type of dating app (read: X-rated content) in a segment that should have been an article number of plant seeds ... As I started by checking numbers in my CAT, I found it within a few seconds. The project manager of that agency and I still refer to it sometimes, even though it's five years ago 🤣
[Edited at 2024-07-26 13:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Kay Denney
France
Local time: 20:32
French to English
Mónica Algazi wrote:
"The broom may kiss the gride." Laughter could be heard from miles away!
Poor broom, can't find a gride to kiss for miles!!!
And thank you, you have reminded me of a funny interpreting incident for me.
I'm not an interpreter, but my brother-in-law asked me to act as interpreter at his wedding. He was getting married in an English-speaking province of Canada, but had only just moved there and didn't feel comfortable saying his vows in English. So I was to interpret for him and he would say them in French.
We went to see the Marriage Commissioner, who handed me a paper, saying "I usually say something like this at weddings". I dutifully translated the text and rehearsed it with my brother-in-law. There's even a hilarious photo on the morning of, where he is cutting my hair (best hairdresser ever that guy) and I'm pointing to the paper and frowning.
Time for the ceremony: the Marriage Commissioner launches into a speech that's nothing like what is written on that paper. I panic: do I say what's on the paper, or do I improvise a translation of what the guy is actually saying? I decide that I have to translate what he's actually saying or the wedding might not even be lawful. I start stuttering to the best of my ability, and my brother-in-law turns to me, panic in his eyes, what the hell is she saying? And the poor bride, tugging on his sleeve to tell him to look at HER while he says his vows, he's not getting married to the interpreter!
I'm happy to say that the marriage has survived that inauspicious start, 31 years and counting!
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When I was living in Brussels, near the neighbourhood where many Portuguese live (place Flagey), the local pharmacist told me that she would be a very rich woman if she were given 5 euros every time a Portuguese person said constipé instead of enrhumé...
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| Wrong term translation | Jul 26 |
I once confused two terms and used a VERY wrong one - it was years ago, I had two sick toddlers at home then and the deadline was very tight... After all those years I am not ready to share the details
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IrinaN
United States
Local time: 13:32
English to Russian
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| The one I haven't made yet but dread it each and every time | Jul 26 |
We used to have manned and unmanned space flights. Now it's crewed and uncrewed. What a slip of a tongue that can be with just one "s" at a speed we must maintain... In Russian it's piloted and non-piloted, a piece of woke culture born in the last century.
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