User:Kayau/Restaurant translates 'cow's stomach' as 'Albert Yip'

Sunday, March 21, 2010  {{tasks|news|re-review}} {{stale}} {{single source}}{{newsworthy}} Yesterday, a restaurant in Tin Shui Wai, Hong Kong made an exhibition of itself as it presented a menu where 'Beef Tripes' was translated as 'Albert Yip', due to the fact that 'Beef Tripes' sounds similar to 'Albert Yip' in Chinese. On the same menu, most other items were incorrectly translated, such as 'hand fighting fishballs' (aka handmade fishballs). Also, some of the Chinese were simplified rather than traditional.

The manager of the restaurant was shocked when a customer suddenly complained about the menu. "My English (or should it be Chinglihs?) has never been that good," said the manager. "But I was nevertheless dumbfounded to see that 'bean thread noodles' (also known as 'glass noodles' for its tranparent colour) became 'fans'!". This error was probably due to local Hong Kong news media has frequently use the Chinese words "bean thread noodles" in print instead of the proper Chinese words for "fans", as 'bean paste noodles' sounds very similar to the English word 'fans' in Cantonese pronuciations. Later, it is suspected that the customer made fun of the translations online, along with a picture of the menu.

An expert originally thought that it was the result of Google Translate, but the translations were worse than any online translator. Some mis-translations were a combination of Cantonese romanisation, English and Mandarin romanisation. It turned out that the restaurant had paid a university student from Mainland China to translate the menu for them. "I never thought that the translations would be so off the mark," said the manager.

	I never thought that the translations would be so off the mark.
—Manager of Moon Ting Fong Seafood & Hotpot Restaurant

Later, Mingpao discovered that a person named Albert Yip had been nicknamed 'Beef Tripes' by some of his online friends before the 'Albert Yip menu' scandal. When a person asked about the English translation of 'Beef Tripes' on a Mainland-based answer-type website, one of the answers was 'Albert Yip'. Today, many people commented about the menu on Facebook and Twitter. "I've fallen in love with Albert Yip." "The world will laugh at those whose nickname is Albert Yip." "The restaurant itself provides great food... Perhaps this scandal will attract more customers."

And it did. Many vowed that they would try out 'Albert Yip'. The manager had invited an expert to re-translate the menu, and the new menu is expected to come out soon. The manager hoped that the menu would not affect Hong Kong's image. "Customers have been phoning to try out our 'Albert Yip'," says the manager. "One even said that we were ashamed for all of Hong Kong."

The expert stated that even the new menu had made a few mistakes. "馬蹄肉 should be translated as 'water chestnuts', not 'watercress'. Since the food culture varies from region to region, one must take extreme care when translating a menu."

Sources

• "酒家速改失禮菜單 網民熱論﹕「Albert Yip」變招牌菜" — Mingpao, 21 March, 2010
• "牛栢葉譯Albert Yip 菜單失禮人 九成亂來 港酒家歸咎內地生操刀" — Mingpao, 20 March, 2010