WTF?!? When translations go wrong

Gee, sure hope the paper fixes this headline:

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Controls/SendFriend.ashx?print=1&type=0&item=168197

IDF Soldier Killed in Training Accident

An IDF soldier was killed Tuesday night in a training exercise when a mind he was handling exploded

David Lev

An IDF soldier was killed Tuesday night in a training exercise when a mind he was handling exploded. The soldier was undergoing training in a battlefield unit, removing mines in a field. The mine exploded, and the soldier later died from his injuries.

The soldier's family has been informed. There was no word yet on funeral arrangements.

An investigative panel has been formed in the wake of the incident. The panel was appointed by General Guy Zur, head of IDF land operations.

I guess Miss Cleo didn't have her hat on! Or was it the 'Great Karnak' who didn't have his great big 'onion head hat' on who he was training? V

My two favorites:

A car made a few years ago that did not sell in Mexico or Latin America very well - the US car maker wanted to know why? Well it turns out that Nova come out as No-Va (Won't Go) ....there is even a silly song about it in Spanish (Me carro no va, no se va...)

The other was also in Latin America back in the glory days of the early 1960's when US company managers figured all they needed was a dictionary to translate a commercial rather than a native speaker. They didn't understand things called "false cognates" those are words that sound like they should mean the same - this one involves a common mistake that young American or English tourists make when visiting Spanish speaking countries because the word embarasar in Spanish does not mean to be embarrassed it means to be pregnant. Generations of exchange students (usually male) have announced themselves to be "permanently pregnant" (Yo Soy embarasada) mixing up both the temporary and permanent forms of "I am" to be really funny.

This is entertaining enough when done by an 18 year old American or Englishmen at a party in Mexico but it is really hilarious when the Bic Pen Company releases a commercial that what they want to say is:

To not be embarrassed use a Bic Pen!

Only what their dictionary translator came up with was,

To not become pregnant use a Bic Pen!

The local joke was soon "why" followed by "how?" it was eventually decided by local comedians that you managed this by putting the pen between the women's legs so she couldn't open them.

It took years for Bic to be anything but a household joke in most of Latin American ....at least No-Va was only one model of car lol

more of a typo than a translation problem