While some errors in translation may be funny and/or costly, experience shows that some errors have the potential to be deadly - making them no laughing matter at all

We now continue with the rest of the top ten list of translation errors we started yesterday. Originally compiled by Lori S.M. Hollenback in 2008, here are the remaining five examples.

No. 5 makes you think there might be something in the water used to make the beer.

Number 5: Colorado brewing company, Coors' "Turn It Loose" slogan translated in Spanish: "Suffer from Diarrhea";

Entry number 4 just leaves me scratching my head…

Number 4: Parker Pen's slogan "It won't leak in your pocket and embarrass you" translated in Mexico: "It won't leak in your pocket and make you pregnant";

Ok, with No. 3 I’m starting to believe there’s a translation error plot against the Spanish language…

Number 3: Frank Perdue's famous chicken slogan, "It takes a strong man to make a tender chicken"

translated in Spanish; "it takes an aroused man to make a chicken affectionate;

No. 2 makes me think that all things considered, the Chinese must really love their Coke.

Number 2: The Coca-Cola name in China was first read as "Kekoukela", meaning "Bite the Wax Tadpole" or "Female Horse Stuffed with Wax", depending on the dialect. Coke then researched 40,000 characters to find a phonetic equivalent "kokoukole", translating into "Happiness in the Mouth."

And the number one translation error made by a major company is regrettably not very funny at all.

Number 1: Mead Johnson Nutritionals had to recall two baby food products because the instructions on how to prepare the products had been incorrectly translated from English to Spanish. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration reported that if both products were prepared according to the incorrect Spanish translation they could have caused seizures, irregular heartbeat, renal failure and even death.

According to Hollenback, all of these marketing mishaps are examples of how even the smallest translation error can greatly affect the intended marketing message and the consumer’s reaction to that message. The hiring of a translation company that offers professional translation services could have saved these big companies a lot of money, time and resources.

Now that’s what I call prudent advice.

Alex Dupont

See Also

• Original article published in 2008.
  Lori S.M. Hollenback's top ten blunders story
• More about translation
  "A successfully translated document should read as if it were originally written in the target language. The text should flow so smoothly that the reader would never realize that the document had been first written in another language."