You know how fancy shampoos always have both English and French text on the back of the bottle? I'm less convinced that this is for sale in Quebec as much as it is just to look cool: "Our product is so fashionable and sophisticated that half of our customers are French." In much the same vein, English is often used here for a similar effect. Maybe it's the fact that the most famous pop culture icons come out of the American charts; but whatever the reason, the result is that, if a product is in advertised in English, it's considered hip and youthful.
Most of the time, the language is grammatically and contextually fine. But every now and then, you get something cute like this English translation I found on the back of a bottle of aftershave:
"A cooling and alcohol based after shave caring gel with 50 % Aloe Vera Gel. The combination with Panthenol and wheat proteins is notorious for a calming and moisturizing effect."
Heh heh. My first thought was that this is probably what my German sounds like to everyone else. Well, it's still understandable, right? :)
1 comment:
I am sure you've heard of this sight, but if not, plenty of mistranslations can be found here...
http://www.engrish.com/recent.php
Some of them get a littly dirty.
A little quote on the same topic from the cartoon, "Earthworm Jim" -
[Jim is calling a fancy restaurant to get a reservation for his date with Princess What's-Her-Name]
Earthworm Jim: Whaddya mean, you won't take my reservation? Of course I'm the King of Spain! Listen: "Soy el rey de esponja."
Peter Puppy: Uh, Jim, you just told him you're the King of Sponge.
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