10 December, 2009

Three cheers for Google!

.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I love Google! I use plain, everyday Google, I use Gmail, I use Google Docs, and lots more. My verdict: they're all super-fantastic. Really! 

But one of the best Google apps, in terms of entertainment value, is Google Translate. It comes up with some of the goofiest translations, ever. It's sometimes quite helpful, and sometimes just awful, and you never really know which one you'll get, until you find yourself rolling on the floor, laughing. Please note that I didn't abbreviate that :)

Anyway, Google Translate has the habit (in Hebrew, at least) of transliterating words that it doesn't recognize. (That's actually one of the easiest ways to tell that something you're reading was translated using it.) In this ad that I found on our local chat-list, it attempts to transliterate the word HaTzaharon. (Tzaharon is the word used for afternoon day care, and this ad is for "HaTzahaon, as in, The Afternoon Day Care.) Okay, fine, we can grant them that one. But it gets better, check it out:





We agree, the English doesn't sound very natural. But do you see the part that really got me chuckling? Yes, there, toward the end... when does it open? From the end of WHAT?

Okay, Hebrew speakers out there: first to guess what that word was supposed to be gets a chocolate chip cookie. On your mark...

7 comments:

thinking out loud said...

was it supposed to say גן (gan)? :-/

debbie said...

Gotta be gan, but hey, gene activity sounds to me like something you do in bed, usually at night, so I'd bring the kids over at the crack of dawn! Happy chanukah!

HolyCityPrayer said...

Quite a few WTF's here imho:

"Food home" - I would think a makolet was a home for food, not a Htzaharon.

"Healthy and Wealthy"? Is Benjamin Franklin the sayaat?

"Company activities" - cool, this Htzaharon has an HR department!! Do they go to Superland on Lag BaOmer?

"Children from schools - help... in preparing homework" - Hmm, most children need help rather than offer it, but whatever works.

"Twice a week class movement" - sounds like something from Orwell's 1984.

"constiv" - What is THAT??? Oh, it's my word verification:-)

toby said...

thinking out loud - great job! We have a winner! The cookies should be coming out of the oven in about half an hour...

debbie - sounds like a plan - Happy Chanuka to you too!

HCP - Agreed! And I love those word verifications, too :)

thinking out loud said...

yum!!!! chocolate chips cookies? cant wait!!!

Unknown said...

I can't decide what I like best: the company activities or the class movement. I guess you can't beat the wise food home. You wouldn't want to send your child to a place without that!

Deena said...

Tobi, such a cute blog!