An extra rule of thumb: if the clothes sport a slogan in a foreign language, and you are planning to give it as a gift to someone who actually speaks that language, check to see if it makes any sense at all before buying. One of my son's classmates gave him a gift a few months ago. It was a set of cotton T-shirts with a slogan emblazoned across the chest. Neither the child nor his mother speak English, so there is probably no way for them to know that I will not be having my son wear a shirt that proclaims “Feel comfortable yourself in this.” Native English speakers can easily figure out the general idea that the manufacturer was aiming for. However, the translation fell quite a bit short of the mark. These are shirts that will be worn only inside our home rather than on outings to nearby parks or shops.
A more recent surprise came when we stopped to buy underwear for my son -- boxer shorts, specifically. There are several small lingerie stores in a row next to the Üsküdar outdoor fish market. Staffed by women sporting stylish clothes and matching scarves, I had no reason to think that we would be surprised by our purchases once we arrived home. We went into a couple stores before we found one that had boxers in the required size. A package of three seemed to be a good deal. The top pair, the only one that showed, had a drawing of a taxi. This seemed innocuous enough to me, and my son liked the design, so we bought one packet, added it to our bulging collection of other purchases and headed home.
After we arrived home, I opened the package and discovered that the other two pairs of boxers were definitely not acceptable. One sported a drawing on the front of an impish-looking being making an obscene gesture. The other one had another drawing that was, to put it lightly and tactfully, unacceptable. Circling the drawing was a saying that could not be misconstrued as anything but indecent, especially for clothing designed for a child. Because we had been into a couple of the lingerie stores before buying these particular ones, I was uncertain which store we had purchased them in. Rather than making the trek back down the hill to the market, I simply placed the offending two pairs in the trash.
Ali Adem wanted to know why he was not allowed to see the other two pairs we had bought, and I explained that they had bad words written on them. I promised we would go out again later, to another place, and look for something more age-appropriate for him. With the promise of a hunt for Spiderman boxers, he was satisfied and soon forgot about the first purchase. I seriously doubt the saleswoman who sold us the set had any idea how offensive some of the items are in her store. I suspect she would be highly embarrassed to know. The next time I am in the market, I plan to look and see if I can remember which store we bought them in and try to explain as politely as possible that they may want to reconsider stocking that particular brand of boys undergarments.
English mistranslations can be amusing, shocking and sometimes puzzling. Just recently, I came across a corporate annual report that was boasting about their highly qualified and highly trained staff. Unfortunately, their choice of words was not the best. I wondered just what type of company they were running when they referred to their employees as “the best of breed.” Laughing, I wondered if the translator they used understood that this description really should only be used in describing animals, and not loyal staff.
In a land where my native tongue is mangled around me with approximately the same frequency as I manage to mystify native Turkish speakers with my version of their language, there are many opportunities to see the humor in the situation. However, it really is a good idea to check before buying anything printed in another language. Buyer beware!
Send comments and questions to k.hamilton@todayszaman.com
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