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Google Translate error results in Spanish town advertising a "clitoris festival"

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Yrael

Member
http://www.theguardian.com/world/20...es-spain-clitoris-food-festival-grelo-galicia

It was meant to be a culinary festival celebrating grelo, the leafy green vegetable that is a staple in the Galician town of As Pontes in north-west Spain.

But for the past few months, the small town was marketing a very different kind of festival after it used Google Translate to put the Galician word grelo into Castilian Spanish, ending up with it inviting people to take part in a “clitoris festival”.

“It was quite a surprise,” Montserrat García, the town’s spokeswoman, told the Guardian. “At first, we didn’t believe what we were seeing.”

Local officials in As Pontes – population 11,000 – had written the announcement for the annual festival in Galician, one of the official languages of the northern Spanish region. They used Google Translate for the Spanish-language version of the text.

It meant the town’s “Feria do grelo” or rapini festival – held every February with tastings and awards for the best grelos – became “Feria clítoris” in Spanish.

The translated announcement read: “The clitoris is one of the typical products of Galician cuisine. Since 1981 ... the festival has made the clitoris one of the star products of its local gastronomy.”

García said the translation error was likely on the town’s official website for months before it was noticed late last week.

She believed the online translation tool mistook the Galician word for the Portuguese version, which refers to the vegetable but also can be used as slang for clitoris.

Officials in As Pontes are considering filing a formal complaint with Google. García said: “They should recognise Galician and translate it accurately.”

Google Translate has since changed the translation, with grelo now said to mean “brote” or sprout. But García remains dissatisfied: “It’s still not the best way of describing grelo, as it is a vegetable from the turnip family.”

Town officials have turned their backs on Google Translate, but there has been an upside to the embarrassing error, García said, as it caused a surge of interest in this year’s festival. “It’s become a means – albeit a very odd means – of promoting our festival.”

Give this the flick if old.
 

Browny

Banned
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airplane-departing.jpeg


Also, never trust Google Translate. A friend of mine used it when getting some Chinese symbols for a tattoo - turned out they read "crazy short person".
 

Funky Papa

FUNK-Y-PPA-4
Officials in As Pontes are considering filing a formal complaint with Google. García said: “They should recognise Galician and translate it accurately.”
No, you little shits. It's your fucking fault for resorting to Google Translate instead of not publishing a version in fucking Spanish.
 

wrowa

Member
I can't believe they used Google Translate without proof-reading the text afterwards. Who would do that?
 

Just Pete

Banned
Thats proper naughty!

Reminds me of the time I told my china plate a saying to tell a bunch of german birds. He thought he was saying 'you girls are lovely' but he actually told them that hes got a small cock, proper giggle.
 

Dynamite Shikoku

Congratulations, you really deserve it!
Thats proper naughty!

Reminds me of the time I told my china plate a saying to tell a bunch of german birds. He thought he was saying 'you girls are lovely' but he actually told them that hes got a small cock, proper giggle.

Chinese plate talking to German birds? Google translate fails us again
 

Alx

Member
I can't believe they used Google Translate without proof-reading the text afterwards. Who would do that?

Everyone, unfortunately. Seeing bad translations obviously generated by bots is a common thing, now, even (especially) in professional software products.
 

industrian

will gently cradle you as time slowly ticks away.
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Welsh: "I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated".

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7702913.stm

I can't believe they used Google Translate without proof-reading the text afterwards. Who would do that?

You'll be surprised.

I work as a editor/writer/proofreader for a tech company, and few things piss me off worse than a project manager, sales person or designer just unilaterally deciding that their writing or a Google Translate result is good enough to print.
 

Jesus Carbomb

From Water into Guinness
I love eating grelo. It has to be fresh, though. Every now and then you'll find yourself munching on some bad grelo that hasn't been properly cleaned. Can't be rude to the person serving the grelo so you just have to hunker down and finish eating.
 

dejay

Banned
it's the clit, not the G-spot, if someone can't find the clit then they should just give up permanantly

Why not start her off with a nice kiss? You don't have to go leaping straight for the clitoris like a bull at a gate.
 

fertygo

Member
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airplane-departing.jpeg


Also, never trust Google Translate. A friend of mine used it when getting some Chinese symbols for a tattoo - turned out they read "crazy short person".
Your story is much funnier than this news, is your friend not too tall?
 

Loona

Member
Funny, because "grelo" is Portuguese slang for the term - I didn't know that was the case in Spanish too...
 

Random One

Neo Member
Why can't you? It's a little town in a remote part of Spain. They probably aren't overflowing with people fluent in English.

English? They were trying to translate from Galician to Spanish.

But for the past few months, the small town was marketing a very different kind of festival after it used Google Translate to put the Galician word grelo into Castilian Spanish, ending up with it inviting people to take part in a “clitoris festival”.
 

scamander

Banned
I honestly thought that basically everyone in Galicia would speak Spanish as well. But for what did they need the google translator, then?
 
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