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Shocking New Evidence on the overuse of online translation...

Writer: Andrew StarrAndrew Starr

Sorry for the "Daily Express" style headline there, but this sign shocked me so much I felt like writing to the "Daily Mail" about it.

Now there are some reasons to use online translation....

Getting an idea of what someone has said in a language you do not speak for example...

However using it to produce business signs is simply not to be recommended as this shining example from South West France, taken in a Shell Garage shows...

What they are wanting is for people to show a form of id and a mode of payment before they pump their fuel (possibly because of a lot of drive-offs). The languages disintegrate as they progress from French to German to Spanish to Italian and finally to English. The English has the Spanish formal 'you' "usted" and 'porcion' which is a portion (probably from the French word 'pièce') and well the rest you can see does not make a great deal of sense!


 
 
 

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