Poke The Needle
I am so grateful I don’t have to rely on automatic translations for any business I conduct. When “poke the needle” comes up as the translated name of a product, it’s an automatic fail in translation.
Translate The Translation – What Means Poke The Needle
I purchased a needle-felting kit from Amazon. Presumably from a non-English speaking country. It’s a good thing that I didn’t need specific instructions on how to use it. Although, I probably could have made-do with the really bad translation.
Honestly, it took at least 3 readings of their instructions to realize that “poke the needle” is their translation of “the felting needle”.
It also made me realize how ridiculous it is for a business to use automated translation tools for their product documents. Social media allows for a lot of International connections. Didn’t ANYONE in this company have one English-speaking friend? One person who could have done a brief review of this document.
I guess it doesn’t really matter. Personally, I’d be concerned about the less-than-serious image this kind of thing would assign to my company. But if they continue to sell a lot of these, it’s not really important.
What’s your funniest translation in the poke needle instructions? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.
Current Knitting
I loved the combination of Uneek Fingering yarn and the Anica Shawl design so much, I started a new one.
This is colorway 3204 in Urth’s Uneek Fingering. Honestly, it’s not the kind of colorway I’d normally make, but I know many will love it.
It has been reported that in the NY Metro area, (where I live), better than 30% of the people speak a language other than English at home. Since this is where I grew up I’m pretty sure that I either know, or I can find “someone” who might know some of the nearly 200 different languages spoken locally. It is amazing to me that the Poke the Needle people are so lazy- or that they pay so little attention to detail, and yet they have a product sold in the US. In health care, bad translation issues can have dire consequences. In felting (meh) not so much.
This reminds me of when I bought my knitting machine back in the late ’80s. The instructions were also most strange. “Attach to rid.” Rid? Rid? Oh, I get it. Attach to “LID”.
From now on, when something goes inexplicably wrong, I can say, “Oh well, I guess I just got inside the outside force.” That should clear it right up.