Tumblr Thread: A Summer Camp Book Inspires Translation Fails

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mattstaff
Nov 7, 2021 2:00 PM EST

We love some good old fashioned translation fails. In this case, we have a funny little Tumblr thread shining light on a series of translation fails that resulted from trying to translate an English book from summer camp. Yes, it would certainly be terrifying if you were trying to chill at summer camp and had a ton of tiny wolves (chipmunks) running around the premises. Check out some more stupid, random, and brilliant gems from Tumblr over here. 

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  • 01
    Font - hedgehog-moss One of the first b0oks I read in English as a kid, maybe 1 year after I started learning English, was a booklet with a title like, How to Have a Great Time at Summer Camp. I don't remember the exact title and I know I only picked it up because the other books in English in my school's library looked way beyond my level, stuff like Austen and Dickens. The summer camp booklet didn't look too interesting but it was small with simple sentences. I ended up being fascinated with i
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 02
    Cheezburger Image 9611306496
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 03
    Font - queueing up for lunch and I was like "VWhat do you think?" and my friend said hesitantly, "Maybe if it's a small diamond?" and I insisted "No! The book says it's big!" 6. among the basic items the book said every kid should bring to camp were "batteries". I didn't bother looking up that word in my dictionary seeing as it's the same in French. I didn't know it was a false friend, and I was impressed to learn that most American kids own a drum set and bring it to camp as an essential item 7
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 04
    Font - what-even-is-thiss This is delightful. Thank you for sharing. wreck-it-remy2 I've never been to camp like what OP is describing so I get a lot of this. But I do not understand number 6 at all. batteries are portable electricity to power electronics such as music players, radios, and flashlights. I have no idea what "false friend" means in this context, but I'm guessing it isn't another way to say fake friend, also known as someone you know who pretends to be your friend. I have no idea ho
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 05
    Font - what-even-is-thiss A false friend in language learning is two words in different languages that are pronounced the same but have totally different meanings. Like the Spanish word educado and the English word educated sound quite similar but they have completely different meanings. Educado means polite. I'm no French speaker but I'm assuming from this post that the French word for drums sounds very similar to the English word battery. lugooble Two things: a. This made my day, thx and b. Th
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 06
    Font - zeppitaph · 303d My personal favorite English-French "false friend" is "préservatif." At least a couple of times, I've heard Americans assume that the French word for preservative (as in a food preservative) was préservatif. This isn't a bad guess since a lot of French words are basically English words said in a French accent. I was talking to someone, and they said something along the lines of "Je ne mange jamais de malbouffe. Ces nourritures contiennent trop de préservatifs." I imagine
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 07
    Organism - CrypticBalcony · 303d I was in marching band in HS (America) and we sometimes referred to the drumline as the "battery." It seems to be a common term in music. In percussion ensemble, drumline referred to snares, bass drums, and tenors; whereas battery also included marching cymbal players (who we didn't have in marching band).
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 08
    Font - deltaexdeltatee · 303d A drum has two "heads" (also called skins, the fabric part that stretches across the openings) on the top and bottom of the drum, and the one on top that you hit with the stick is called the "batter head." Batter and drum have nearly identical meanings as verbs, so it's not too surprising that the French word for drum would be batterie. 2 ...
    via u/cestrumnocturnum
  • 09
    Rectangle - subtracti • 303d My favorite false friend is the word embarazada in Spanish. It sounds like it would mean embarrassed, but no. It means pregnant. (Embarrassed is avergonzado/a) That would be a fun one to get mixed up on in public. 43 ...
    via u/cestrumnocturnum

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