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From the March 2005 Consumer Reports, which displayed a photo of the
French text on the "care" label attached to a handbag produced by the
Tom Bihn company in the U.S.:
English (GH translation; English label not shown but described by CR):
Hand-wash in warm water with gentle soap, and hang to dry. Do not use
bleach. Do not machine-dry.
French: Laver à la main à l'eau tiède, savon doux, étendre pour secher.
Ne pas javelliser. Ne pas secher à la machine. Nous sommes désolés que
notre président soit un idiot. Nous n'avons pas voté pour lui.
For those whose French is of the "plume de ma tante" variety, the extra
French text says: "We're sorry that our president is an idiot. We
didn't vote for him."
Please let's not turn this into a political discussion. The lesson for
those of us who do or review translation is that someone needs to check
the translations carefully. In this case, the extra French seems to
have been an intentional political comment by the manufacturer, but
I've seen similarly egregious errors that crept in when nobody did the
QA.
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
www.geoff-hart.com
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