The Lengths People Go For A Link….
Posted by Emily Collins February 18, 2010Categories:Viral Link Articles |
Catholics Against Kerry, Spray Tan Booth and Perfect Parenting are just some of the more obscure websites that our travel articles end up on. However, it isn’t just the obscure sites that provide amusement during our monthly reporting sessions, but also the lengths that some people will go to, to get a fresh, unique content on their website.
A new technique seems to be taking one of our travel articles and using a language translation tool, such as Babelfish, to translate the article from English to German and then back to English again, so that it reads quite differently. However, the end result is often bizarre to say the very least. The original paragraph below is from one of our travel articles on Cuba:
“With its sandy beaches, clear waters and beautiful sunshine, Cuba is not so very different from what many people envisage paradise to look like. But with so much to explore, it’s important to make the most of your Cuba holiday – don’t just stay in Havana but make your way out to the surrounding islands and explore the other resorts to be found in the Cuban archipelago.“
Now let’s see what happens when we translate it into Chinese and then back into English:
“Its sand beach, clear Shui He the happy sunlight, Cuba is not that imagines the heaven with any different many people seems an elephant. But by explores, maximum limit uses your Cuban holiday - is important do not can only pause in Havana, but makes your export periphery island and explores other methods which will find in the Cuban archipelago.“
The article not only doesn’t make sense but also brings a random elephant and happy sunlight into the equation. When translated from English into Russian the article takes on a different tone and warns people away from the historical capital of Havana, stating “do not remain in Havana”, whereas the German translation warns travellers not to remain simple in Havana. Sadly the article doesn’t tell visitors what may happen to those who do decide to remain simple, but instead goes on to talk about free water in the country.
As we write articles enriched for specific keywords these translated travel articles are often of very little use to us. One of our clients specialises in holidays to Everest Base Camp and we noticed that when translated from English into Chinese and back again, the word for Mount Everest had a very different meaning. Here’s a passage from the original article:
“….They convened at Kala Pattar, the top of which is a good vantage point to look down upon the neighbouring Everest Base Camp (5,360 metres), and a great spot to view Mount Everest (8,848m).“
Now see what happened when it was translated into Chinese and then back again:
“They convene in Kala Pattar, above are the good vantage point which looked get down in neighbor bead Mu Langma the basic camp (5,360 meters) and a great spot watch the Egyptian Buddha Luss peak (8,848m).“
Suddenly we are no longer talking about holidays in Everest Base Camp but talking about a mythical peak in Egypt, known as the Buddha Luss, which can be seen from the basic camp Mu Langma, which again can be seen from a neighbour’s bead.
However, as much as we poke fun of some of the more blatant attempts at changing our article content online, we can’t really complain as at least we are still gaining valuable links from these articles, although a link about an Egyptian mountain can’t be that useful when linking to an article on Mount Everest! But one wayward link is a lot less trouble than some larger corporations have had, after falling foul to rogue language translators online.
When KFC translated their slogan “finger-lickin’ good” into Chinese it read “eat your fingers off”.
American company, Hunt-Wesson introduced its Big John products in French Canada as Gros Jos before discovering that the phrase, in slang, means “big breasts”. Strangely, the name did not have a noticeable effect on sales
In Italy, a campaign for Schweppes Tonic Water translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
Panasonic developed a complete Japanese Web browser, and to make the system user-friendly, licensed the cartoon character Woody Woodpecker as the “Internet guide.” They planned to create a world version of the product. However, the day before the ads were to be released, Panasonic decided to delay the product launch indefinitely. The reason: an American staff member at the internal product launch explained to the stunned and embarrassed Japanese what the ad’s slogan, “Touch Woody - The Internet Pecker”, might mean to English speakers.
As we are always on the look out for online marketing solutions, we know that some people will go to any lengths to get fresh online content on their websites; but when a Cuba blog starts telling its readers to avoid Havana and a Mount Everest website talks more of mythical peaks in Egypt than the world’s largest mountain, then it’s time to exercise more in terms of common-sense than poorly translated nonsense.
I’ve seen some of my articles on french,German and Russian article directories. After reading this, I’d hate to think what my articles translate to…