Overview Alphabet Phrases Mistranslations

Translations
Translating can be difficult and tedious work. It is difficult to convey ideas, especially between cultures that are so different from one another. Mistranslation can be comical, but they can also offer a perspective on the mechanics on the original language. Just as English speakers say funny things in Korean, Koreans do the same with English. Take a break from your Korean lessons with these funny phrases!

There are two kinds of translations: inbound translating, which is translating a foreign language into Korean, and outbound translating, which is translating Korean into a foreign language. These two have to go together as one.

Bad English

Mistranslations can be funny and sometimes entertaining too. Sometimes they help break the ice. Other times, they can do damage to one's image.

Here are some examples of foreign mistranslations of English:
Shop at the very last.
Go here and meet people whom you have never met before in your life.
[This service] is not able not only for the sheer size of its database,...
You can find out Korean style goods in here.
Dream there california (small c)
Pocari Sweat (a drink)

An advisory for expectant mothers from the Public Health Center in Joetsu City in Niigata Prefecture:
1) Strain yourself or push at the time of contraction and two hours later a baby will come out.
2) A swell will be checked if there is, by pushing shin.
3) If your weight gains rapidly, it is a sign of swell or fatness.
4) If you pick up around your nipple come out 1 cm high, and it'll be alright.
5) You'd better begin your sexual intercourse after the delivery after the one mouth check-up with a doctor.
6) If you want to do a vowel movement don't stop.
7) After you vomit, you rinse your mouse and if you can eat, eat.
8) You can do ?foo, foo? naturally when you open your mouth slightly.
9) Brasure can be for maternity one or nursing bra, so that your breast can't be oppressed.
10) There are many differences of ideas in family but she felt family bondage after delivery as a wife.

A guy in China was wearing a jacket that said "FBI"
Woody goods: we have a woody heart, now listen to my story
Confidence of creating deliciousness. This tastiness cannot be carried even by both hands.

Elephant dum [d-u-m]. Elephant dum is popular with us. His humming makes us feel dancing like a conjuring trick

Please pass me your head.
(asking for lettuce) Could I have some head please.
I boiled my husband.
When she was 2, she could eat herself. (feed)
Paris is too gay for me.
Silence of the sheep. (lamb)
Come in and make yourself uncomfortable.
When we take care of our patients we shouldn't get hard. (be difficult)
I will graduate from university in 2000 years. (in the year 2000.)
He is raping a desk.
He's getting with the cat.
I'm gonna do my dog. (walk)
I'm usually easy on Sundays. (take it easy)
You are riding inside me. (beside)
He is flashing. (He is taking a picture.)
He's been a house for 5 years.
There was a big erection in England today.
Someone shot a gun from his behind.
The tall one held her behind. (from behind)
Thailand notice for donkey riders: Would you like to ride on your own ass?
Rome laundry: Leave your clothes here and spend the afternoon having a good time.
Just trying to place my feet in her shoes is a thought that boggles the mine, but time will heel.
My mother is away at the moment so I am cooking my brother.

Students who are native English speakers
On his quest, Milkman discovers his own family's genitality, and that makes him forget about the gold.
The patchwork guilts had been sown by Grandma Dee.
I felt as if I had been trown into a room of hungry loins.
The bedrooms were very small, but the living room had a medium side.
Higher prices don't dissolve the problem of alcoholism.
At your connivance, I can be reached at the above number.
Just trying to place my feet in her shoes is a thought that boggles the mine, but time will heel.
My teachers expected a lot from us, and I was always afraid that he would embrace me when he called on me.
You always new when he come in the room because of the smell of his strange colon.
Next, break the eggs into two bowels.
Teachers harassing students will continue because the authorities don't care about the students body.
We were so poor that we had to share a bathroom and a chicken with two other families.
In the end he was a rear image of his grandfather.
She had ankles like peach-pits and lips as big as a twelve-year-old girl.
He had a beard like a communist revolutionary.
He slipped into a comma and died.
We read three sad stories, but the second one was the sadist.
What if I could offer a student loan to under pillage children.
I found concise information and will be back for more whenever my brian lets me down. [from the Grammar Guide's Guestbook]
Concerning the Hemingway story, "Hills Like White Elephants": "Gig and her boyfriend who is American were at a train station wating for a train to Madrid to have an abortion."
Please give me a correct definition and examples of "automat apia." [from the Grammar Guide's "Ask Grammar"]
I have been diagnosed with Attention Defecate Disorder. This makes me very disorganized.
Dear Dr. Osborne, I pushed Jennifer and my paper under your door.
Ernest Hemingway was a really, really, good righter. He was so good that he won the pull it surprise for his book The Old Man and The Sea.
The blue bonnet plague killed many people.

What will she do with the sheep.
She will hurt it.
How will she hurt it?
(Giggling nervously) I can't say.

Is there a supermarket near here?
Yes. Go strange. Turn left, second signal.

Where are they?
They are in London.
Why do you think so?
Because they are serious.

Who's river is it?
It's God's river.

Have you ever seen the Liberty of Statue?
No, what is it?
It is a big goddess with ice cream cone.

Name an English speaking country....
"Switzerland."

Why are you studying English?
Because I want to go to France

The opposite of thin.
fag.

For restrooms, go back towards your behind.

Bad Bush - Quotes from the father of all bad English

The first time we may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is when, God forbids, he uses one. Address to the UN General Assembly September 12, 2002 changed in later transcripts to "God forbid"

I'm furious. But my furity will not keep me from . . . After the terrorist attack on Hebrew University August 1, 2002 changed in later transcripts to "Even though I am mad . . . ."

Quite frankly, teachers are the only profession that teach our children. source unknown, September 18, 1995

You teach a child to read, and he or her will be able to pass a literacy test. reported in Newsweek, March 5, 2001

I'm against hard quotas, quotas that basically delineate based upon whatever. However they delineate, quotas, I think, vulcanize society. quoted in the Austin American-Statesman

If affirmative action means what I'm for, I'm for it. Presidential Debate, St. Louis, October 18, 2000

Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take dream. Campaign Speech, LaCrosse, Wis., October 2000

If the terriers and bariffs are torn down, this economy will grow. Unknown, January 2000

Actually, I ¡ª this may sound a little West Texan to you, but I like it. When I'm talking about ¡ª when I'm talking about myself, and when he's talking about myself, all of us are talking about me. on Hardball, MSNBC May 31, 2000

Africa is a nation that suffers from incredible disease. quoted in Newsweek 25 June 2001

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