Since the introduction of the 1993 Welsh Language Act, Welsh benefits from official equal status with English in the public sector in Wales, requiring all government information and documentation to be available in both languages. Around 20% of the country’s population speaks at least some Welsh – but this means, of course, that about 80% don’t. In one of the funnier tales of mistranslation that I’ve run across lately, a Swansea [Wales] road sign was “translated” into an “out of office” e-mail auto-reply. “Swansea Council contacted its in-house translation service when designing a bilingual sign barring heavy goods vehicles from a road in the Morriston area of the Welsh city,” reports Telegraph.co.uk. “But as the translator was not available, they received an automated e-mail response in Welsh saying: ‘I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.’” And you guessed it: since no one in the office understood the short reply, employees assumed it was the requested translation. City workers apparently got right to work, and the auto-reply message was proudly posted underneath an English sign reading: “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only.” Welsh speakers were quick to find the error and municipal services took the “translated” sign down post-haste. If you want to communicate effectively with potential foreign customers, contact a qualified language service provider such as Language Translation Inc. in San Diego. We have successfully carried out language translation work for major US and international companies such as Century 21, Sony, and Panasonic. “Let us show you how good translation should be.” Betty Carlson Subscribe to Language Lines, our monthly newsletter, for information about the growing importance of language translation in the business world. | 
