fun with translations, playoffs edition

There's a lot of intentional sports humor out there on the Internet, and I'm trying to keep up with favorites like Down Goes Brown, The Heckler, Intent to Blow, etc. (linked on the sidebar, okay?), but I stumbled across a few other things Thursday...

I. Great Moments in Canadian Sports Journalism

Toronto sports reporter Damien Cox's tweet below:


linked to this; it was passed around on Twitter with "his best column ever"-type comments. Ooops!


II. Here are the darkest hour of the playoff suck

Windy City Hockey has been back for the playoffs and posted this great bit recently, When Translation Goes Horribly Right, on Googling the Finnish word for hockey (jaakiekko) and "Antti Niemi" and then Google-translating the Finnish articles back into English. Producing amusing results, like the piece he linked on the Blackhawks-Sharks series mentioning "evil Nabokov." Of course I had to try it...

The story below was not the only one translating San Jose Sharks into "San Jose State." That is a real school with a hockey team, but...Also, does "goalie" translates to "paint" somehow? Please click on these (you'll find the title I used--I'm not sure what it was supposed to say).


So, "Vancouver did not win even once kotihallissaan" and "we were unable to perform swing at home."


Also, "Antti Niemi was shot in black and blue"; and re: injured Canuck Sami Salo, "Quality to injury ounasteltiin everything from testicular crushed."

These are nice too:


Now, I've tried fun-with-translation before, but it's just been going to the French version of the official Canadiens website, translating it into English, and comparing it to the English version. It's amusing on more of a clumsy-wording level, not a "what the hell were they trying to say?" level. I tried it today but didn't get much...except for a wholly unnecessary translation:
 

III. Green!

This new "Green League" stuff debuted on NHL.com today (or maybe yesterday). Not actually funny, and I'm glad they're doing whatever it is they're doing...but I wondered, is this background supposed to give the feel of reading a website on recycled paper? Or maybe it's just me, I'm no design expert. (Also, no real reason for that photo--I'd rather see "Niedermayer's electric car" that's mentioned!)

1 comment:

Aubrey said...

Lol, this translation thing is funny! French Wikipedia says that Crosby is "a retired Canadian hockey player" and translates "shootout" to "the firing of musketry."

Speaking of Crosby, that's a retarded picture to use for the league's green program. Unless they're suggesting the Winter Classic is particularly environmentally friendly?