Owner's Manual: Wonky Translations

[lorigriffin]

Hi all,

I just got my first scooter today, a Buddy International Saint Tropez. His name is Pepé le Scoot and he has a whopping 3 miles on the odometer right now. My boyfriend and I are taking a scooter class this weekend (he bought a Vespa LX150 today), so until we get our licenses we decided to start reading the Owner's Manual. Have you read this fine piece of literature yet? Here are a few things that made us laugh:

Page 14: Do not put luggage in the temperature.
Page 17: The leakage means the braking system has deadly dangerous problem.
Page 20: The appearance will become slippery due to significant worn out dusty or wet road riding.
Page 22: Make sure to park your scooter away from flammable material, pedestrian or child to avoid danger due to yielding hot from muffler cover.
Page 22: Don't try to ride, idle or stop on the surface of inflammable.
Page 23: Please be noted the side stand must be withdrawn from the ground before riding, otherwise dangerous situation may occur due to your ignore.
Page 27 photo: Is the scooter parked on the dog's tail?? What's going on there!

I only skimmed through the manual, so please post if you've spotted more.

Cheers,
Lori

[ScooterTrash]

There are a lot of threads on this already, welcome anyhow

[bigbropgo]

scootertrash, glad to see your back on the radar.

lorigriffin, welcome to modernbuddy.

[ericalm]

Ahh… welcome to one of the hilarious idiosyncrasies of Buddy ownership. The manual is fortunately not indicative of what you can expect from your scooter!

I'd heard quite some time ago that Genuine was working on new manuals. It's quite possible that in the crazy sales rush of '08 and the big slowdown of '09 other things took priority and this got put on the backburner.

Still, it's a good source for a few laughs.

We should make MB shirts with that dog on them!

[TVB]

Page 27 photo: Is the scooter parked on the dog's tail?? What's going on there!

The dog got too close to the hot tailpipe and burned himself.

[charlie55]

Stupid dog!

[iMoses]

Buddies aren't the only one with translation issues this is from my SYM owners manual

...Do not press the horn button when you are in the no horn area...

[babblefish]

While the translations in the manuals are sometimes bad (notice that most of the spelling is at least correct ), I've read many (many!) posts on various forums (mostly within the U.S.) with grammar and/or spelling errors that were just as abysmal - including my own.

[michelle_7728]

Agreed...but then luckily most of them aren't writing an owner's manual that multitudes of people will be reading.

Back to the thread...you can pretty much pick any page and find stuff. To show how anal I am, the first night I went through it with a pen and corrected all the grammatical errors that I could figure out. Unfortunately, as pointed out, there are a "few" that are indecipherable. Now my owner's manual looks like a bunch of scribbles...

I guess some people (referring to myself) either have too much time on their hands, or can't figure out what to do with spare time when they finally get some!

[ericalm]

To show how anal I am, the first night I went through it with a pen and corrected all the grammatical errors that I could figure out.

How do you tolerate the Internet?

I'm about as bad, but have had to learn to relax my standards. Thanks, Internet!

[DennisD]

Finding manual of to fix where internet unless to dealer are much much to time of hands on.

[Cheshire]

[BuddyRaton]

While the translations in the manuals are sometimes bad (notice that most of the spelling is at least correct ), I've read many (many!) posts on various forums (mostly within the U.S.) with grammar and/or spelling errors that were just as abysmal - including my own.

PFFFT...with a name like yours what else would we expect!

42

[babblefish]

While the translations in the manuals are sometimes bad (notice that most of the spelling is at least correct ), I've read many (many!) posts on various forums (mostly within the U.S.) with grammar and/or spelling errors that were just as abysmal - including my own.

PFFFT...with a name like yours what else would we expect!

42

I think you may have mistaken my name for "bablefish"; a completely different species from a "babble" fish!

bab⋅ble
  /ˈbæbəl/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [bab-uhl] Show IPA verb, -bled, -bling, noun
–verb (used without object)
1. to utter sounds or words imperfectly, indistinctly, or without meaning.
2. to talk idly, irrationally, excessively, or foolishly; chatter or prattle.
3. to make a continuous, murmuring sound.
–verb (used with object)
4. to utter in an incoherent, foolish, or meaningless fashion.
5. to reveal foolishly or thoughtlessly: to babble a secret.
–noun
6. inarticulate or imperfect speech.
7. foolish, meaningless, or incoherent speech; prattle.
8. a murmuring sound or a confusion of sounds.
9. babbling (def. 2).
10. Telecommunications. a confused mixture of extraneous sounds in a circuit, resulting from cross talk from other channels. Compare cross talk (def. 1).

[ericalm]

That would be the Babel fish, which got its name from the Tower of Babel.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_of_babel

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Races_and_ ... Babel_fish

[michelle_7728]

To show how anal I am, the first night I went through it with a pen and corrected all the grammatical errors that I could figure out.

How do you tolerate the Internet?

I'm about as bad, but have had to learn to relax my standards. Thanks, Internet!

Well, the internet is the internet--you can't take on the world!

What really bugs me though is email at work, where people are working in a professional environment, but don't seem to know the difference between there, their, they're, too and to. We all goof up on occasion when we're trying to get an email out in a hurry, but I have noticed that when directors and VPs send emails out they rarely have typos. This says to me that while it is politically incorrect to bring up this topic (I'm quite sure I'm going to get lambasted for my comments ) correct grammer does matter to more people than you might think. I am not a manager, nor do I aspire to be one, but when you are dealing with management types it is my opinion that you are taken more seriously if you know how to spell, or use a spell checker.

All that being said, blogs and forums on the internet are made for folks to relax and blow off steam, so different rules apply.

[babblefish]

...not to mention confusing the use of "then" and "than". "Your" and "you're". "Wabbit" and "rabbit". OK, now I'm just getting silly.

I understand that we all come from different educational backgrounds and countries and it's all good, but I see all of these errors in nationally distributed magazines and newspapers all the time. That, in my opinion, is simply not acceptable.

OK, I'm getting off my high horse...

[michelle_7728]

Agreed.

Sorry lorigriffin! Didn't mean to hijack your thread!

Back to the original intent of the thread, I think it's okay to poke a little fun at the owner's manual--it does after all have lots to poke fun at. Seeing as how Genuine Scooter is an American company, I'm not understanding how the manual could be such a mess...and even if it were a foreign company, you would think they might invest a couple of bucks in proofreading by someone who speaks/writes English!

...Sorry Genuine, otherwise I think you guys, and your product, are super!

Here's a couple more examples:

P.20 "Please ask you dealer for repairing or replacing if the appearance has been detected significant worn out or stabbed by nails, or glass."
P.32 "Exhaust control system (only be valid for the bike equipped catalyst):"
P.32 "1. Catalyster will not be possible to be withdrawn individual, the only you have to do is to maintain fuel, ignition, intake/exhaust system periodically."
P.32 "6. Exhaust density checking while idle: please left the job to any service center of anti-pollution inspection for carburetor adjusting."
P.37 "In order to avoid falling down, please park you scooter firmly will be safe."

Seriously, does anyone know what they are trying to say in the bolded statement above?

[DennisD]

Physical used in place of fiscal makes my skin crawl. Then there is pacific instead of specific and prostrate instead of prostate. It's like fingernails on a blackboard.

Seriously, does anyone know what they are trying to say in the bolded statement above?

Change the plug once in a while, replace the muffler when its worn out, or a gasket if leaking and leave the rest of it alone. That's my best guess. Works for me. So far I've not even changed the plug.

[KABarash]

To show how anal I am, the first night I went through it with a pen and corrected all the grammatical errors that I could figure out. Unfortunately, Now my owner's manual looks like a bunch of scribbles...

I guess some people (referring to myself) either have too much time on their hands, or can't figure out what to do with spare time when they finally get some!

When I first got my Bud, my then Lady Friend, a school teacher, 'red penned' my manual as well..... It was quite the laugh, especially after a few drinks!!

[TVB]

Seriously, does anyone know what they are trying to say in the bolded statement above?

I suspect that's why Genuine hasn't fixed the manual: they don't know what it's trying to say any more than we do.

[babblefish]

<SNIP>
Here's a couple more examples:

P.20 "Please ask you dealer for repairing or replacing if the appearance has been detected significant worn out or stabbed by nails, or glass."
P.32 "Exhaust control system (only be valid for the bike equipped catalyst):"
P.32 "1. Catalyster will not be possible to be withdrawn individual, the only you have to do is to maintain fuel, ignition, intake/exhaust system periodically."
P.32 "6. Exhaust density checking while idle: please left the job to any service center of anti-pollution inspection for carburetor adjusting."
P.37 "In order to avoid falling down, please park you scooter firmly will be safe."

Seriously, does anyone know what they are trying to say in the bolded statement above?

It's saying that the catalytic converter cannot be removed and replaced from the exhaust system as a separate part. The only maintenance that needs to be done is maintaining the fuel system (fuel filter), ignition system (spark plug only, really) and intake/exhaust valve adjustment.