Japan: Was it lucky?

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Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 @ 12:26 UTC

by Chris Salzberg

Countries:
Japan, U.S.A.
Topics:
Software & Tools, Sport, Language
Languages:
English

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pt:
Japão: Foi sorte?...

Akky at Asiajin reports on an interesting case of “lost in translation”. Chicago Cubs fans at a Major League opening game in Chicago, where Japanese baseball player Kosuke Fukudome made an impressive debut for the team, were seen waving signs with the Japanese words “偶然だぞ” (Guzen da zo), roughly translated to “It was lucky” (or “It was accidental.”). After some investigation, the likely culprit for the unintended put-down was found in an unusual place: Google Translate.

Posted by Chris Salzberg
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One Response to
“Japan: Was it lucky?”

  1. April 2nd, 2008 at 1:29 am
    It was a fluke! : Japan Probe:
    1

    [...] Kosuke Fukudome may have noticed some strange and distracting Japanese signs among the crowd during his major leage debut in Chicago. There were signs with 偶然だぞ！ printed out and held aloft. Problem is, this phrase can mean things like, “that’s just luck” or “mere coincidence” etc (lit. coincidence+affirmative copula+masculine emph particle). The Japanese media picked up on this and speculated that fans were reminding him to be humble. But ironically the signs seem to be telling us how they were mistakenly made: by a fluke of how Google Translate coincidentally handled the English phrase “It’s gonna happen.” Read more and see a video at AsiaJin. [via Globalvoices] [...]

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