The 'spare prick' epidemic
If this guy forgets the combination to his locker, his luggage may mysteriously become a "spare prick."Poking fun at poor "Engrish" Japanese translations is so cliched at this point that it borders on the patronizing. Yet once in a while certain translations are so bizarre that they require further inquiry.
Take the case of "spare prick."
Earlier in the month CNNGo contributor and professional translator Matt Alt encountered the English phrase "When the set combination is forgotten, it becomes a delivery of the spare prick in the train terminal station" on a Narita Express train. Based on the Japanese, the English should have been "If you forget your combination, your luggage will be returned to you at the final stop."
So how in the world did "luggage" (お荷物) become "spare prick"? A linguistic mystery was born.
Turns out that Excite's J-to-E machine translation tool was responsible, and sadly, JR was not the only Japanese company hoodwinked into "spare prick" usage by this errant software.
Alt tells us, "Official English translations have improved dramatically over the last decade, but this is a perfect example of how blindly trusting online translation tools can make one look like, well, a tool."
But how in the world did "spare prick" become registered in the software as "luggage" in the first place? Theoretical models are in their early stages, but Alt and others believe that it may have come from some odd equivalency between the metaphorical idea of an unneeded friend being "extra baggage" and the British phrase "spare prick at a wedding."
Let's just hope that companies do not use ALC's ultra-vulgar translation for "kitanai" （汚い, "dirty") in upcoming English texts.
More on the subject at Alt's blog post.
