Funny Translation Fails

Traveling the world is a life-changing experience, but it’s not all serious. Sometimes you haven’t quite gotten a grasp on the native language or it’s likely the locals in the country you’re visiting don’t fully understand English. Because misunderstandings between languages happen so often, things can get lost in translation. And a lot of the time it’s spectacularly funny. 

From bizarre microwave instruction manuals to unfortunately worded public signs, funny translation fails happen wherever you travel to. So next time you’re on an adventure in another country, keep an eye out for translation fails like these.

Exploding Intestines?

First up is a restaurant classic, the exploding large intestine. Now, if you’ve been to your local takeaway you might have accidentally ordered this item at some point, but this restaurant kindly gave its customers a heads up. 

For $52 we’d hope it at least came with garlic bread and a loo roll.

Be Quiet, He’s Dreaming

Aw, I wonder what tiny grass is dreaming about. Hopefully not about getting stood on by people all day. If it’s dreaming about lawn mowers it’s definitely having a nightmare. The real question is - what was this sign supposed to say? In Mandarin Chinese this literally translates to “Grass is resting. Do not disturb” so it’s not too far from the English translation, but either way the English version is way cuter. 

What’s Going On In This Russian Hotel?

In this Russian hotel, the door handle signs are either very comforting, encouraging guests not to worry - or very confusing. How are you supposed remove a whole room? Hopefully guests don’t get charged extra if they forget to remove the room. Not everyone packs their power tools, then again, this is Russia.

Which sign would you put on your door?

Explosive Dog Doing His Job

The best part of this picture isn’t even the funny translation fail of ‘explosive dog’. That good boy is clearly wagging his tail, living his best life and not at all worried about possibly exploding. It’s unfortunate, though, because if they’d just added an ‘s’ to the end of explosive then this wouldn’t have been a fail at all.

Unless this dog just chowed down on some dynamite.

Wipe It!

This instruction manual is particularly angry. Maybe it’s because the writer didn’t enjoy making instruction manuals for ironing boards. Maybe it was meant to say damp and the proofreader skipped this page. Whatever the reason, this translation fail makes me wish more things were written like this. 

Imagine if recipes included more curses and demands… ‘Now crack that damn egg into the brownie mixture!”

Funny translation fails can be a highlight of any trip, but don’t beat yourself up if you’re the one making the language faux pas. Learning a language to fluency is a  challenging journey, and you need the right resources to help you along. See our previous blogs for travel and language learning tips.