language
Bread is bread…isn’t it?
Today I wanted to look at how to translate the word ‘bread’.
Easy, isn’t it? Bread. Pane. Pain. Pan. Brot.
But before leaving things at that, just think for a moment about ‘bread’. What comes to mind? A loaf? Sliced bread? White bread? Brown bread? If you’re from Umbria you will probably be thinking (more…)
Anything you fancy on the menu?
Why is it so difficult to translate a menu?
If you’re looking for a truly exotic dish, you need look no further than the many badly-translated menus in English…you’ll find all sorts, from ‘fried fishermen’ to ‘revolting eggs’, from ‘feet with jam’ to ‘fried friendship’ and even ‘saucepans in butter with fried hormones’! Mmmmm….delicious!
Errors in menus which have been translated into English often just make us laugh. But they are no laughing matter for those who work in the restaurant industry -with a badly-written menu you can quickly lose valuable customers! (more…)