[geeks] Phrasebooks

[Shannon Hendrix]

On Jan 1, 2008, at 12:23 AM, der Mouse wrote:

>>> I once met a person who knew how to say "I am a pencil" in 18
>>> languages.  [...]
>> I have a list of "My god!  There's an axe in my head!" in 103
>> languages.  I'm not certain which is the less useful of the two.  :)
>
> In my father's family, there was a phrasebook which was (in)famous
> because it included "Lo! Our postilion has been struck by lightning!".

This reminds me of all those funny computer mis-translations.

In our cognitive psychology classes, we used to use phrases to trip up  
both computer and human translators.

Like: They hear bears bare their hair there.

Or: You go to the zoo too.

Some of the translations even by human translators were hilarious.

-- 
"Where some they sell their dreams for small desires."