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FCC Poster Gaffe

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Aictos

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Well the BBC is wrong in one aspect, I've never seen any poster like that displayed at all at Stevenage!
 

A-driver

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Seems a bit of an over reaction and non story really. Especially as they seem to blame FCC for not having spotted it -how dare FCC not have an Arabic translator on salary ready to check this kind of thing out...I mean most TOCs do don't they?

From what I gather the facts to be from the story they sent the posters to a professional translation company. The company did an arabic translation and then somewhere before being printed someone changed the Arabic font and no one knew that it no longer made sense. It's not really offensive or dangerous etc. It's just a simple mistake. Worse has happened like the welsh translation of a road sign in Wales which was put up reading something like slow down in English and 'I'm sorry I'm out of the office but leave your welsh translation here and I'll do it as soon as possible' in welsh!
 

Oswyntail

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It doesn't say much for the ability of FCC to monitor a contract, or of their printers. Just an overall shoddy job. It does leave the impression that the production of information in different languages is just lip service - but that is true of so much of the British attitude to Johnny Foreigner.
 

A-driver

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Why dosnt it say much for fccs ability to manage a contract? Do you speak arabic? They sent it to a company to translate. If they could speak Arabic to proof it when it came back then why send it to a company in the first place? They trusted the translator and somewhere along the line it went wrong. This just seems like cheap journalism again.
 

6Gman

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Seems a bit of an over reaction and non story really. Especially as they seem to blame FCC for not having spotted it -how dare FCC not have an Arabic translator on salary ready to check this kind of thing out...I mean most TOCs do don't they?

From what I gather the facts to be from the story they sent the posters to a professional translation company. The company did an arabic translation and then somewhere before being printed someone changed the Arabic font and no one knew that it no longer made sense. It's not really offensive or dangerous etc. It's just a simple mistake. Worse has happened like the welsh translation of a road sign in Wales which was put up reading something like slow down in English and 'I'm sorry I'm out of the office but leave your welsh translation here and I'll do it as soon as possible' in welsh!

Actually the worst Welsh example was the one that said 'Turn Left' in one language, but 'Turn Right' in the other!

[The one that confused cyclists with cystitis was a classic, but not actually dangerous!]
 

jon0844

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It doesn't say much for the ability of FCC to monitor a contract, or of their printers. Just an overall shoddy job. It does leave the impression that the production of information in different languages is just lip service - but that is true of so much of the British attitude to Johnny Foreigner.

Surely most companies would outsource translations to ensure they get things right, and it's written in a proper style - not something from Google translate.

In other words, FCC has not shown contempt to others and tried to do the right thing, let down by another company working on its behalf.

Rather reminds me of G4S letting down the Government (and indeed, the previous Government that awarded them the contract). There's only so much the Home Office could/can do.
 

dk1

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If i went to another country & they mis-spelt somthing in English i would laugh but care very little really.

Has probably done FCC a favour as the advert has been broadcast nationwide free of charge.
 

142094

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Exactly - Chinglish is normally quite funny but I wouldn't be upset by a sign with English written incorrectly in a foreign country. At least they've made an effort.
 

dk1

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Exactly - Chinglish is normally quite funny but I wouldn't be upset by a sign with English written incorrectly in a foreign country. At least they've made an effort.

People take things too seriously these days me thinks ;)
 

Class377/5

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Yup. Sure someone will have complained that there were no multi-lingual posters there if they hadn't have put these ones up.

Any complain that TOCs have translators on the pay role too ;)
 

Oswyntail

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Why dosnt it say much for fccs ability to manage a contract? Do you speak arabic?....
No I don't, and neither do they. But they obviously didn't insist on even minimal levels of quality control. When you outsource you don't just take what the service provider says on trust, certainly not in critical areas.
Exactly - Chinglish is normally quite funny but I wouldn't be upset by a sign with English written incorrectly in a foreign country. At least they've made an effort.
But this is a safety notice, miles away from the usual Chinglish (which can be very funny)
 

GB

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Anything to have a pop at the railways I guess. They are under no obligation to produce such a poster and when they do on good faith and then it goes wrong through a third party its national news:roll:
 

142094

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But this is a safety notice, miles away from the usual Chinglish (which can be very funny)

Safety notice that probably no one looks at or takes notice of. I agree it should have been checked at the printers, but on the other hand it isn't exactly a serious error.
 

Skimble19

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No I don't, and neither do they. But they obviously didn't insist on even minimal levels of quality control. When you outsource you don't just take what the service provider says on trust, certainly not in critical areas.
But this is a safety notice, miles away from the usual Chinglish (which can be very funny)

It's also highly likely to be ignored. At the end of the day, it's the printers fault, not FCC.
 
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