JLFS

I think the bad translations are a form of entertainment, and really enjoy reading and trying to figure out how the mistakes came about.



Lillte goads, and courageous potatoes spring to mind

Razorbill

Your recommendation was good! They didn't have an English menu but then they didn't have a Spanish one either! Plenty of Brits in though including a cycle team.

busters mum

Glad you enjoyed it Spanish menu written on a board outside

Chiclanagir

Cannot believe this thread.......... this is Spain not England. To be so arrogant to expect everyone to speak to you in English. You may have an English menu but have you got a Spanish one as well?

busters mum

Who me ? yes we have and it is given to Spanish customers, and the French customers get the French menu

bil

Jam and cheese is another.....

jdr

Translation needed : Jam, cheese, peanut butter and banana sarnie.

Razorbill

Meal of the day 7 Euros was all I needed. Brilliant!

lynnxa

but she means the English people.................

I never quite know what to do in our local Chinese restaurant

when they first opened the waitress spoke little English so we spoke to each other in Spanish

a few years on & her English is pretty good now (some nights in there you'd think you were in England, although it is popular with the local spanish too)- yet I still prefer to speak Spanish with her

quite often she'll speak English & I'll speak Spanish

I just understand her Spanish better than her English.................

cricketman

Given that we are Spain, I speak to everyone in Spanish, unless I see that they dont speak Spanish. In which case I speak in English

lynnxa

so do I mostly

I did come unstuck once, in a different chinese restaurant

the waiter clearly didn't speak English, so we ordered in Spanish

at the end of the meal on my way to the loo, I asked him to give the bill to the man with the ponytail (obviously in Spanish)

poor lad had no idea what I had said

it turned out he couldn't actually speak Spanish either - he could take an order . but that was it

Razorbill

I think the answer is to converse with waiters in Spanish, but if they clearly speak better English than I do it is pointless batting on in Spanish. I also think it would be sensible for restaurants who provide an English menu to have it corrected by a native English speaker before spending money on printing and laminating etc. I agree it would be less entertaining but would save a lot of misunderstanding.

JLFS

Talking about misunderstanding I remember going to a shop in the UK when I was still at the stage of translating from English to Spanish and back again in my mind.
I asked for a box of "chocolate toes".

jimenato

My problem is the other way around - my menus and other literature are in English and need translating into Spanish which I do myself. I would never think of putting them out until checked by a native Spanish speaker NOT a good Spanish speaker, a native.

bil

Very smart. That way you can a) be sure of what the content is, and b) it is colloquial and correct.