Blogging Translator

Translation blunder #1 – ‘consensual union’

This is the first of what I expect to be a serial, albeit occasional, exposé of the problems caused by translation errors. Translation errors occur more frequently than we think, with potentially disastrous (or simply amusing) results – let’s not let them go unnoticed! Please feel free to post any similar major blunders you may come across.

Ok, so translation blunder #1 is about an EU census containing a question on ‘cohabitation’, which is erroneously translated as ‘consensual union’…. This has led widespread misunderstanding, and even outrage amongst EU-phobic newspapers and politicians.

The UK Independence Party, never one to miss an opportunity for EU-bashing, was one of the first to express their outrage, in an interview on the Radio 4 Today program this morning. You can listen to it here, with a wry smile as it gradually transpires that the cause of the confusion is in fact a particularly poor translation.

The news article is on BBC news.