Working with brands across EMEA, as a copywriter and creative director, I’ve seen my fair share of language translation glitches.  So when I was sent this little nugget of knowledge I just had to share it.  Some English phrases were translated by computer, one way and back again, using 5 different languages.  How did the software cope with 10 consecutive translations of the same piece of copy?  Judge for yourself.

1) I’m a little teapot, short and stout.
became
They are a small potentiometer, short circuits and a beer of malzes of the tea.

2) A cookie is just a cookie, but fig newtons are fruit and cake.
became
Biskuit has expert of biskuit, but Newton von Fig is fruit and hardens.

3) When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie, that’s amore.
became
If the moon fixes its eye like a great vector of Fleischpie of the vector of Pizzapie, is the lover.

Laugh? I almost cracked my ribeye steaks. One final point, at Beechwood, we always use mother tongue translators for all our client’s EMEA  localisation work.  We find it’s a better way or which after 10 translations becomes  - ‘We discovered it, an avenue of butter’.