Auto-Responder in Four-Inch-Tall Letters

You know those pictures of English-language signs from other parts of the world that are unintentionally funny? Well, it happens to other languages, too. For instance, this Welsh signage error.


Not so funny, you say?

Well, in Wales, all the signs are bilingual, and in this case the sign department needed the words "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only" translated from English to Welsh.

They sent a request to their in-house translator by email and got a response (as seen above). Unfortunately, the translator was actually out of the office and the Welsh phrases that came back were the translator's email auto-responder, saying:

I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated.

So that's what the sign says. Tee hee.

When I was traveling in Wales a few years ago, I enjoyed seeing all of the signs in Welsh. As a teenager, I was obsessed with Wales and the Welsh language, so finally getting to see the country and the language in bilingual signage was especially fun for me (probably more than it was for my traveling companions!).

Little did I know that the Welsh signs may have been in need of a rewrite.