You’ve heard of draft terms of use, but have you heard of daft terms of use?

bq. Language
It is the express wish of the parties that the Terms of Use and all related documents have been drawn up in English. C’est la volonté expresse des parties que la présente convention ainsi que les documents qui s’y rattachent soient rédigés en anglais.

Is that not a translation error? But a Google search produces a lot of other hits – this is not necessarily a text that originated at Adobe.

Here is a better version of the ‘soient’:

bq. Agreement in English: You and we agree that these Terms Of Use and all related documents be written and interpreted in the English language. (Les parties ont exigé que le présent contrat et tous les documents qui lui sont liés soient rédigés en anglais.)

Source and comment at iNews: Lex in the City, where there is also discussion of other terms.

“Meine Mitmenschen sind der unmittelbaren Demenz verfallen” -“Ja mei”

und andere Beispiele bei Wos waas a Fremda?

Beim BDÜ gibt es einige Veröffentlichungen zu bestellen.

Neu – und ohne Gewähr – Dolmetscher und Übersetzer im Landesrecht, hsg. Norbert Zänker:

bq. Prüfung, Beeidigung, Ermächtigung bzw. Bestellung von Dolmetschern und Übersetzern sind- wie auch zum Teil die Ausbildung für diese Berufe- in Deutschland landesrechtlich geregelt. Der BDÜ legt hier eine erste Übersicht über die Vielfalt an Gesetzen und Verordnungen der Bundesländer vor.

Ich würde das Buch mir vorher anschauen wollen. Die Gesetze der verschiedenen Länder sind teilweise in Internet zu bekommen. Ein Überblick ist sicher eine nützliche Sache. Kurt Jessnitzers Buch Dolmetscher 1982 (behandelt auch Übersetzer) ist leider vergriffen, ist auch heute noch interessant, wenngleich es natürlich nichts zu den neuen Bundesländern enthält. Anscheinend sollte es eine Neuauflage geben, aber anscheinend kam es nicht dazu.

In den neuesten MDÜ gibt es eine Liste der in Kürze erscheinenden Veröffentlichungen.

Wer übersetzt was? Ein Kompendium mit Angaben über Ausbildung, Werdegang und Berufspraxis von etwa 1,000 BDÜ-Mitgliedern (Welche waren das? Noch nie was davon gehört), ca. € 26

Materialien für Gerichtsdolmetscher: Glossar der Gefängnissprache, deutsch, Preis ca. € 5 / Strafbefehle und Anklagen – authentische Texte, ca. 120 Seiten, ca. E 12 / Das deutsche Strafgesetzbuch in englischer Sprache, ca. € 25 (Wer übersetzt das?) / Deutsche Urteile in Strafsachen, authentische deutsche Texte, ca. 120 Seiten, ca. € 12

Kreatives Übersetzen
Kreatives Denken ist, so lautet die Kernthese des Buchs, in unserem Gehirn als Denkform angelegt. Wir können diese Denkform erkennen und von ihr Gebrauch machen. 215 Seiten, € 24,80 – (Voll mysteriös – ohne Autorennamen? Ists Herr Zänker wieder?)

Scarcely has the World Youth Day ended than we are confronted with this:

bq. ‘Piano Man’ turns out to be Bavarian farm boy

bq. BERLIN – The mysterious Piano Man who fooled doctors in Britain for months by pretending to be mentally ill was back in his native Germany Monday after admitting to having staged an elaborate hoax.

Pretending to be mentally ill and pretending to play the piano, apparently:

bq. The patient was nicknamed Piano Man after reports that he entertained hospital staff with a remarkable talent for classical recitals. When medics gave him a pen and paper, he drew detailed pictures of a grand piano.

bq. However, the report said he could only tap one key continuously on the piano in the hospital chapel and that he only drew a picture of a piano because that was the first thing that came into his head.

It sounds as if quite a few people were pretending to be mentally ill.

Thanks again to Abnu of Wordlab for this Internet exclusive. Doesn’t seem to have hit the British press yet (and apparently the NHS Trust is ashamed).

LATER NOTE: Rainer Langenhan links to a German version of the story.

The Budapest Business Journal presents a little rant about the Hungarian National Office for Translations and Attestations (OFFI):

bq. Everyone has a tale to tell about the creaking grasp of certain languages too often displayed by those who translate for this creaking institution, founded way back in 1869. If you’re a native English speaker, for one, a glance at OFFI’s website will provide plenty of chuckles, where the text appears in places to have been written in some 19th century form of Hunglish.

bq. The trouble is, of course, is that if a translation has the OFFI seal and jolly little ribbon attached, then for all intents and purposes in the eyes of the law, the pope is Jewish if the OFFI version has it so.

Here is the English OFFI site. There is indeed a contrast in style here:

bq. OFFI Rt.’s operation is supported by modern background technology developed and upgraded over the years while responding to stringent requirements. The core of the IT support is a computer network which not only offers word processing software to support the core business but also handles business administration and provides electronic contacting facilities.

Breitenbach are selling Wahlschlappen in a choice of four colours.

This is not easy to translate as Wahlschlappe means a bad election result – a party is said to have suffered a Wahlschlappe (heavy losses), whereas Schlappen are slippers.

I see they have the domain name too, surely not a popular one. Some legislation is on the cards in Britain to prevent people from making money on Olympics 2012-type language. I doubt something like this would have been caught.

bq. Existing legislation already prevents non-official sponsors from using distinctive “Olympic marks” like the Olympic rings.
But the new bill will make it illegal to combine words like “games”, “medals”, “gold”, “2012”, “sponsor” or “summer” in any form of advertising.

LATER NOTE: One has to be careful in translating political colours. For example, we wouldn’t say in English that the Bavarian electorate is largely black.

(Via Peter Müller)