Frenglish 101

Anyone who has used Google or Yahoo to translate a web page or an article from one language to another knows that it is a tricky science, with the results far from acceptable.
Translation remains one of the few tasks where humans wildly outperform computers. One of the key elements is to use a translator who's native language is one that the passage is being translated into.

Last year I wrote to Ports Canada about the embarrassing language used on the Champlain bridge. Some of the messages on the electronic message boards included;

"STAY ON THE RIGHT LANE"
and
"ROADWORKS ON DECARIE"

To their credit, these problems have disappeared. No doubt they have an anglophone reviewing the messages before they are allowed to see the light of day.

The latest agency to slaughter the English language is Transport Quebec. I hope that the department can scrounge up at least one English employee who would be able to review English advertisement before they were sent to be published.
The quality of the English used in Thursday's advertisement advising the public of the closure of the LaFontaine tunnel, left a lot to be desired.
Ultimately it is a embarrassing reflection on the department.



I've highlighted the most apparent gaffe, but almost every single notation suffers from faulty translation or has grammatical errors or problems in syntax.

See how many you can find....

Sportsnet's Roger Millions- Is It Live or Memorex?

Hmmm.........

Gaffe Costs Quebec Gov $400 Million a Year

With all the publicity concerning the mammoth loss of almost 40 billion dollars by Quebec's Caise de Depot, it isn't surprising that another fiscal blunder has largely gone unnoticed. It seems that a simple accounting mistake has cost the Quebec government a small fortune.

Successfully operating a province in Canada is a bit like paying your taxes. You've got to arrange your affairs to take maximum advantages of the governing tax policies.
It seems that the Quebec government committed a monumental mistake, one that continues to cost the province hundreds of millions of dollars each year, in equalization payments.

A simple accounting change has triggered the 'Law of Unintended Consequences" to the detriment of Quebec taxpayers.
It's quite simple. Last year the government, in an effort to balance it's budget, asked Hydro Quebec to remit a higher portion of it's profits directly to government. Usually, Hydro keeps a portion of it's 3.5 billion annual profit to finance new projects.
The utility was told to remit more money to the government and told to borrow, if needed, funds for expansion. It was technically, a neutral transaction, as the government is the sole shareholder of Hydro-Quebec, it just meant that Hydro would become a borrower in place of the Quebec government.

What the Quebec bureaucrats didn't realize, is that due to changes in the formula used by Ottawa to calculate equalization payments (introduced by Ottawa in 2007) , the change had the effect of making Quebec seem richer and thus triggered a reduction in equalization payments.(Equalization payments are subsidy's that the Federal government pays to poorer provinces,)

According to Gérard Bélanger et Jean-Thomas Bernard, two economic professors at the Université Laval, the measure triggered a loss of over 400 million dollars in compensation, PER YEAR!

To date, the Quebec government has no plans to change this accounting practice. ....grrrr..

Jewish General Hospital's 'Chutzpah'

I received a solicitation letter from the Jewish General Hospital and was about to toss it when I was struck by the pitch, printed on the outside of the envelope.

"The other hospital sent me home to die.
The JGH saved my life."

I was, to say the least, a bit surprised at the nervy statement.
My next thought was -

What the heck is the name of the other hospital? ....I certainly don't want to go there!

Porter Airlines Ad Gaffe

I don't think it's nitpicking to comment on today's full-page advertisement by Porter Airlines in today's Globe & Mail.

It would seem that when one places an advertisement that costs tens of thousands of dollars, it would make sense to proof the final copy.

The ad announces expanded service to Toronto and features an airfare of $79.

Problem is, the ad doesn't say where the flights originate.

The ad was in the Montreal version of the paper so I might assume it means that Montreal is the embarkation point, but then again........

Click on the picture to enlarge