Mark Holtom (aka Kingbeard)Sep 22, 2025

This has got to be one of the best. In Wales, UK, there is a legal requirement for road signs to be in both English and Welsh. So, in this case, the official of the Highways department emailed the English wording to the translator and, after receiving a reply, proceeded to have the sign made and installed.

Unfortunately, a few weeks later, Welsh-speaking drivers began to call up to point out that the Welsh reads..... "I am currently out of the office. Please submit any work to the translation team."

Show threadSvavar the Neurospicy

@MarkHoltom

What I love about this is that the translator is so petty that they don't have an out of office message in English as well as Welsh, and that nobody involved in making the sign had even a passing familiarity with Welsh that would enable them to catch the mistake.

Sep 22, 2025 at 1:18pmWeb
Show thread𝐉𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫Sep 22, 2025
@svavar @MarkHoltom That's what's always struck me about this. So this person works as an English-to-Welsh translator for at least one government agency, but never considers the possibility of receiving email from a non-Welsh-speaker? I wouldn't say "petty" so much as "wildly irresponsible"; the job by its nature requires communication with people who don't speak Welsh and email has been an essential communication tool since the 90s. But that was apparently the situation, because Snopes rates this true.
Show threadmirabilosSep 22, 2025
@jonberger @svavar @MarkHoltom someone said Welsh was a legally recognised language in the UK, English is just a common default…
Show thread𝐉𝐨𝐧 𝐁𝐞𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐫Sep 23, 2025
@mirabilos @svavar @MarkHoltom Oh, it certainly is. We have good friends who live in central Wales; he's English and she's American and they don't speak Welsh, but their two young daughters do because they're taught it in school..