Saturday, September 6, 2008

Why can't the Americans learn to translate?

I'm at home in PG County this summer, and I was at the local M-NCPPC pool and ice rink yesterday, waiting to be picked up, and I noticed that the pool rules were listed in both English and Spanish. Since my Spanish isn't that good these days, but I still remember some of it, I decided to try reading the Spanish rules and comparing them to the English ones.

Anyway, I noticed some interesting things:

1.) In English, the rules say "No food or drinks allowed on the pool deck." In Spanish, though, they say "Do not eat nor drink in the water; you can only do this in the areas designated for it." These don't really sound equivalent to me--I'm not sure if Spanish lacks a good way to say "pool deck", or if the translator just didn't know it.

2.) In English, the rules say "No flotation devices, life vests, fins, or balls.", apparently banning both flotation equipment and the balls kids play with in pools. The equivalent Spanish rule says "No flotadores are permitted." According to Harper Collins Spanish Unabridged Dictionary, a flotator is a "rubber ring, life preserver, inflatable armband, or float". It doesn't seem that balls are forbidden in Spanish.

3.) This is the big one. In English, the last rule is "Parents must watch their children at all times."; in Spanish, it is "It is forbidden to smoke in our facilities." I can't find anything in the English about smoking not being allowed, or anything in the Spanish about watching children. All the other rules seem to be matched bullet-for-bullet, so I can only assume that this is just a phenomenally bad translation. I'd appreciate any suggestions of what's going on here, though.

If you have any additional comments on these, feel free to post them.

Labels: bad PG County, bad translation, English, Spanish