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 thread0x10f/kalle/qalleSep 22, 2025
@MarkHoltom A sign in a hospital in Helsinki in 2013. The left column has locations of the hospital in Finnish (waiting rooms etc.). As required by law, the right column has the Swedish translations... except they all read "same in Swedish" in Swedish.
Show threadmsaari 📚
@0x10f @MarkHoltom So... I was curious, and about only reference I could find was Seiska, which had exactly the same photo. It's also very low-quality journalism and not trustworthy. I also found this in Reddit, where someone says that was made on purpose as an example of how the signs should look like: https://www.reddit.com/r/Suomi/comments/mzvn8y/samma_p%C3%A5_svenska/. Of course, someone is using Seiska to dispute that in the thread, but the Seiska news piece is so vague that it doesn't really proof anything. Also, it's exactly the same photo in every source. Someone making a funny sample sign sounds like a more plausible explanation.
Sep 25, 2025 at 2:11amWeb