TRANSLATION BLUNDERS

Take a look at 7 of the worst “lost in translation” cases in history

Image: Afif Ramdhasuma

Amateurish translations can be a recipe for disaster, especially when international politics or your business future are at stake! Traduttore, traditore! is an old Italian saying that roughly means "translators are traitors." However this saying has nothing to do with wartime propaganda or chauvinistic sentiments, and it’s instead a rather lighthearted take on the inherent difficulty of a translator’s line of work.

You might wonder, how bad can you make things with a bad translation? Well, there’s no need to wonder, the profession is full of hysterical stories about the craziest translation blunders that almost managed to ruin whole thriving businesses and reputations.

Image: Tim Mossholder

Around the 1960s, Pepsi decided to expand its business to China only to find a literal linguistic barrier that almost ruined the whole venture. At the time, Pepsi’s slogan in English-speaking countries was "Come Alive With the Pepsi Generation." However, when directly translated into Chinese, the slogan read something like "Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the dead," turning the favorite cola of millions into a powerful dark magic concoction that—as one could expect—wasn’t very well received by the Chinese population, who just happen to hold their deceased ancestors in great esteem.

Image: Enq 1998

When Napoleon’s brother was crowned king of Holland in 1806, he was eager to please the local populace and quickly decided to change his name to something more fitting, from Ludovic to Lodewijk. However, he was such a bad speaker of Dutch that, during the coronation ceremony, he ended up declaring himself the "Rabbit of 'Olland," instead of "King of Holland."

Image: Aaron Burden

This one is absolutely hilarious, and just like the Pepsi gaffe, it shows the dangers of localizing new products when you aren’t fully aware of the language. When Parker Pens decided to expand its business into Mexico, it mistranslated the company’s current slogan "It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you"— surprising by itself, since you would expect that to be the bare minimum in order to have a working pen— into "It won’t leak in your pocket and make you pregnant," due to a confusion with the similarity between the false cognates "embarazar" (get pregnant) in Spanish and "embarrass" in English.

Image: Tuntematon, Valkoisen talon valokuvaajat (01/20/1977 - 01/20/1981), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

In 1977, during a trip to Poland, U.S. President Jimmy Carter took an involuntary part in a series of incredibly funny translation fails. His amateur interpreter was terribly bad at speaking Polish—and even understanding English apparently—because when the president mentioned that he had left the U.S. that morning, the interpreter said to the Polish audience that "he had left his country, never to return." To make matters even worse, Carter’s enthusiastic appeal to the Polish people was mistranslated again and the interpreter said that the president wanted to "get to know the Poles carnally."

Image: Jen Theodore

When beer brand Coors tried to get into the Spanish market, it failed to hire a decent translator, since the company’s tagline "Turn It Loose" was translated into something akin to "Suffer From Diarrhea," something you definitely don’t want to see in a beer can from overseas.

Image: Thomas Kelley

When General Electric released a new partnership brand in France under the acronym GPT, no one realized that, in French, this acronym can be read as "J’ai pété," or "I farted." You can imagine that if they just hired a French teenager, they would have discovered their mistake soon enough, saving themselves a lot of time and money.

Image: Miika Laaksonen

A Swedish non-prescription drug used to alleviate stomach pains called Samarin wanted to market its product to Arabic countries with a text-free three-panel comic strip that showed a man with a hurting stomach in its first picture, the same man drinking Samarin in the second, and a happy and healthy man in the last one. But they forgot to take into account that in the Arab world people read both books and comic strips from the right to the left! So, not even avoiding text whatsoever saved them from screwing up their new business expansion.

10 Books that suddenly make more sense later in life

Ever reread a book and realize it hits completely differently? Time changes us, and how we relate to and understand things does too. If you’ve read these books, you’ll know; if you haven’t, you will soon. Some stories can mean one thing at one point in our lives, and something completely different at another. Let’s go over these incredible novels that may have already changed us once, and might just do so one more time.

What if the real danger isn’t censorship, but indifference? This question comes up when reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, published in 1953. The story follows Guy Montag, a fireman tasked with burning books in a futuristic, dystopian society where reading is officially banned.

In youth, this classic novel can be read as a thrilling adventure of rebellious firemen who confront a dark government. Later in life, it can be seen as a mirror of modern society, where many people choose content that avoids uncomfortable truths. The key lies in what Bradbury noted: books weren’t initially banned by force; instead, society stopped caring about them and chose shallow entertainment.

Not all bravery is loud. This is a core concept present in The Nightingale (2015), a historical fiction novel by Kristin Hannah. It centers on two estranged sisters, Vianne and Isabelle, during the German occupation of France in World War II, highlighting the strength and sacrifice of women, especially during wartime.

This book hits harder later in life because younger readers might look for a loud, active rebellion. But as time goes on, readers come to understand the immense strength required simply to keep going. Parents also realize how protecting a family can sometimes involve impossible choices, and older readers better understand the weight of carrying secrets and moving forward anyway.

It’s not just tragic, it’s actually devastatingly human. Of Mice and Men is a heartbreaking 1937 novel by John Steinbeck that showcases exactly that. It follows two displaced ranch workers in California, George Milton (who is smart and small) and Lennie Small (who has physical strength and an intellectual disability).

If read as a teenager, this story can come across as a school assignment with a very sad ending, but if read in adulthood, one can value, above all, that the outcome painfully and honestly echoes the crushing sacrifice of protective love and responsibility.

Is losing everything sometimes the real win? The Old Man and the Sea, a 1952 novel by Ernest Hemingway, explores this question. At first sight, it tells the story of an old Cuban fisherman named Santiago and a giant fish. He hooks the massive marlin out at sea and fights for it endlessly, but giant sharks eat it before he can bring it back to shore.

It could initially seem like a simple fishing tale, since young readers might get restless as they wait for a quick, triumphant ending. As life goes on, readers begin to appreciate how the story focuses on resilience in the face of life’s losses, and that in this case, returning empty-handed with Santiago’s dignity intact is the true victory. It reminds us that not every effort will mean a prize, and that inner peace is priceless.

What happens when survival replaces dreams? The Grapes of Wrath is a 1939 novel by John Steinbeck that deals with this topic as it follows the financially struggling Joad family, tenant farmers from Oklahoma. Driven off their land by severe weather (including dust storms and drought), and greedy banks during the Great Depression, they travel west to California along Route 66, looking for a better life.

This book makes more sense as we get older because youthful idealism gives way to a deeper understanding of hardship, such as systemic challenges, the depth of parental sacrifice, and the profound need for community over individualism.

What if survival itself is the greatest victory? The Color Purple is a 1982 epistolary novel by Alice Walker that won the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and asks this question. It is set in rural Georgia and follows young African American sisters Celie and Nettie, their struggles, and how they face them.

Young readers tend to focus solely on the brutal oppression and pain inflicted on Celie, who suffers abuse and writes letters to God in search of peace and guidance. When revisited later in life, readers value more the triumph of survival, the importance of redefining life on one's own terms, and how this reinvention, spiritual guidance, and sisterhood can save us.

The past feels different when you finally understand what it cost. Roots is an impactful 1976 historical saga written by Alex Haley that explores precisely that. It follows the life of a young African man named Kunta Kinte, who is enslaved. The story then traces the author's lineage from Kunta Kinte to Alex Haley himself, who won a Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award for this work.

For younger readers, the story can come across as a harsh history lesson, but as time passes by, one can observe with more clarity how the text showcases the incredible sacrifices grandparents and parents made just for future generations to be free.

Adventure fades, but meaning deepens. Lonesome Dove is an epic 1985 Western novel by Larry McMurtry that won a Pulitzer Prize, shining a light on this. It’s about two retired Texas Rangers, August "Gus" McCrae and Woodrow Call, who lead a 2,500-mile cattle drive from a small town in Texas to the relentless Montana territory.

This story makes a different type of sense later in life because youth often craves limitless, grand adventures, while age, on the other hand, reflects and understands the quiet strength and dignity of "simply enduring". The core difference lies in youth chasing goals before realizing that meaning lies in small, daily moments, such as in the value of companionship (like the unspoken bond between Gus and Call).

Why do these stories feel so comforting years later? The Hardy Boys is a classic mystery series by Franklin W. Dixon. It follows two teenage brothers named Frank and Joe Hardy, who solve crimes, catch thieves, and discover treasures. The stories take place in the fictional town of Bayport, where the Hardy brothers use the detective skills their father, Fenton Hardy, taught them.

These tales make a different kind of sense later in life, when the excitement and fearlessness give way to the nostalgic comfort of stories where everything works out in the end, reflecting a mid-century idealism sometimes longed for to this day.

The people we misjudge often carry the heaviest stories. A Man Called Ove is a heartwarming novel by Fredrik Backman, published in Swedish in 2012 and translated to English the following year. It follows the grumpy and lonely 59-year-old widower named Ove, who initially intends to end his life, but is continually interrupted by his lively neighbors.

This story completely changes meaning as life goes on, because if read in youth, readers often see the main character as dark or unlikeable. Instead, later in life, readers will appreciate how overwhelming grief shapes him, and the importance of letting the unexpected into our lives, like a seemingly irritating neighbor who may be precisely who we need. It reminds us that others are also fighting silent battles, and together we are far more likely to endure than alone.