The funniest pool sign translation you’ll ever see

While on holiday in Cyprus this month, I came across a multilingual swimming pool sign that made me doubt any truth in all these news stories that spring up about AI replacing human translators.

The sign translation errors in Russian here are so funny that I can’t imagine ChatGPT or Claude.ai or any other smart assistant coming up with anything so badly wrong.

Let’s take the Russian for “No diving or jumping allowed”. This is simply not how we speak Russian. It should be something like “Нырять и прыгать в бассейн запрещено”.

Or “Lifeguard is on duty only during opening hours”. The Russian here uses the word “duty” in the meaning of a tax to pay! I don’t think even Google Translate would get the context so wrong - and for translators, context is everything.

Then comes “Small children must wear special swimming nappies when using the pools”. What are swaddling cloths supposed to mean in the Russian version? I’ve never seen babies swim in swaddling cloths as their hands and legs would be tucked in, preventing them from swimming.

Signs such as these can provide additional entertainment for guests, but they are equally damaging to the reputation of a five-star hotel that was excellent in many other respects. Situations like this give us, translators, a chance to market our services, which is exactly what I did when I had a friendly chat with the General Manager. It transpired that they were already aware of the translation issues with this sign and had it corrected, with a replacement sign coming soon.

It’s always nice when something lost in translation ends in laughter rather than confusion, and in this case, with a promise of a shiny new sign. Until then, guests can keep enjoying the pool… just not while diving, jumping or wearing swaddling cloths.

[Tip: Ran your text through a neural network? We can proofread the translation! Email enquiry@talkrussian.com]