Funny Pictures, Not-So-Funny Translations

The other day when I was working alongside a group of linguists of various language backgrounds, one gentleman came to me with his smartphone in hand.  "Could you tell me what this is?" he pointed at one picture displayed on the phone's screen, "A friend of mine posted this for me to see."

Half embarrassed and half amused, I explained that it's supposed to be some kind of juice with the extract of the black "tree ears," a type of edible fungus. 

"Well, how did they come up with this, then?" he pointed at the translation: "The jew's ear Juice."  I shook my head with no answer for him, because, really, they could've called this drink Elixir of Black Tree Ears.

"Oh and there's this," he excitedly scrolled the screen down to reveal another delicacy:

This time, I burst out laughing.  I'm sure most people know that there's no possible way this product contains any human flesh.  But the sight of those words "CHILD SHREDDED MEAT" still makes one wonder: did they just use Google Translate?

As a Chinese linguist, I can assure you that this "CHILD SHREDDED MEAT" was no work of Google Translate or any other online translator.  儿童营养肉松 is composed of three Chinese phrases: 儿童 (children), 营养 (nutrition/nutritional), and 肉松.

Now, it's a bit difficult to explain 肉松 to someone who's never had it.  It's similar to shredded meat, except it's dry.  The meat (usually from the pork hind leg, i.e. the ham portion, where the muscle fibers are long) is braised and then fried in a dry skillet until all liquid's evaporated.  So far, nobody has come up with a good English name for this delicacy.  Which is a shame, because good food such as this deserves to reach more taste buds.

The naming difficulty of 肉松 aside, why can't they just call this product Nutritional Shredded Meat for Children?

Send me weird translations (Chinese to English) that you've come across!   I'll take a crack at 'em!  :)


Please translate responsibly.

Photo Credits: Imgur