Oops! 10 Most Embarrasing Translation And Interpreting Fails

I work in the translation sector. Quality is everything to us - we live and die by it. As anyone who is involved in language services will know, you have to work with freelancers; in this case freelance translators and interpreters. So, no matter how much time and effort you put into ensuring you only work with top-notch freelancers, human error and infallibilty does and will get in the way of quality. Here are real-life 10 epic fails carried out by translators and/or interpreters when on the job!

1. Don't Flush

A legal firm requires a Yoruba interpreter for a telephone call with one of their clients. The firm ring upon completion of the call complaining the interpreter was on the loo! How did they know? "We could hear an echo and then we heard the loo flush."

2. First Impressions

Occassionally, an agency needs to send out a freelancer they have not met face to face. 99% of the time, this works out fine. However, imagine the faces in the office when a client calls having just met the German-English interpreter, with the opening line, "I don't know how to say this but your interpreter looks and smells like a tramp." Ouch.

3. Olympic Spirit

During the London 2012 Olympics a number of interpreters were responsbile for chaperoning corporate guests across London. One night an interpreter was so wrapped up with the games that they managed to leave 30 South American guests standing in the middle of East London, lost and clueless as to what to do. Luckily they were eventually rescued.

4. You did what??

Sometimes an interpreter needs to take equipment with them to aid in "real time" translation of speech. This equipment is very expensive. So when an interpreter called after a meeting saying, "I'm sorry but I left your equipment on the train," the office was not very happy. Over £7,000 worth of equipment! Luckily, British Rail saved the day and found the equipment!

5. Stayin' Awake

Interpreting is hard job - no, it really is. It can be exhausting. However that is no reason to fall asleep during a job. This is exactly what happened to a German interpreter working on a trial in London; counsel had to nudge him awake. Thankfully the Judge saw the lighter side of things.

6. What the...?

A Spanish-English interpreter got the shock of her life when she turned up for a business assignment to discover she ws translating between an American pimp and some of his "staff" from South America! She was a true pro and carried on nevertheless! No so much a fail on the interpreter's behalf this one.

7. Read the email

Reading emails is useful, especially if you are a professional translator and receive work by email. One Polish translator tried to take legal action for an unpaid debt. She was sent a one page birth certificate and for some reason translated a 45,000 word document. It later turned out this was another potential job for another translation agency.

8. Talk to the Hand

You may or may not be aware of tensions that exist within communities that share a language. An Urdu interpreter once left a meeting with a solicitor and their client due to the ethicity of the client - cultural tensions combined with the personal histories of both Urdu speakers created such tension that the linguist walked. Unprofessional?

9. Better Early that Never?

This genuis Thai interpreter arrived 24 hours early for a business meeting. Upon realising the mistake they apologised at reception, left the building and then managed to completely miss the meeting the next day! Better late than never, not early!

10. What's in a name?

One Spanish translator had managed to change a client's surname in a personal document to "penis". It was pretty certain that translator didn't know the client personally so the assumption was made that it was an error rather than a correction!