Translation Issues

So there was a blog posted earlier today on the Language Log titled Racist Park. This post briefly talked about the attempted Chinese to English translations for various signs and billboards around Beijing and how the Chinese are trying to fix some of the more embarrassing signs to get ready for the Olympics. Geoffrey Pullum thought the funniest English translation was Racist Park. This was the first attempt at an English name and will undoubtedly be changed if it has not been already. What is this name representing?

The park dedicated to the theme of providing education about China's rich array of ethnic minority populations

This post reminded me of my roommate and her molt paste situation. It really makes me wonder where they come up with these translations. Is it just Chinese to English that causes these great problems and issues? Of course loose translations often provide amusement to thousands. As far as my roommate—sometimes she understands what I am saying, but some of the time she has no clue, even when I use the same words I have heard her use before that I figured she was familiar with. We definitely have our fair share of communication issues in terms of translation. A couple weeks ago she told me she heard from someone else about a store that had good clothes and that it was at the mall. She could not remember the exact name and made a stab at it. T. M T. T M. T M Mikes. What? I called my other roommate out to see if she could think of a clothing store that started with a T at the mall that someone would tell her about. No luck. We ran into one of the other Chinese students at Target later that day and found out the name- T M Mikes. It baffled me. So I discussed it with a friend of mine a few days later and she came up with T.J. Maxx. Bingo. That has to be it. I don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I have yet to bring it up to my roommate, but I am positive that is the store she wanted. She is getting much better at English now though and translation issues have decreased somewhat.

I know I will soon be on the other end of all this and cannot help but wonder how many eggs will be on my face by the time I leave Spain.