Lost in Translation: Facebook Ad Edition

Ah, technology — you’ve come so far, yet how far you still have to go. Reader Lynn H. submitted this head-scratcher of a screenshot of an automatically-translated horse listing.

Pixabay/CC

Online translators can be such a gift to help bring people from all corners of the world together… but nothing beats the real human connection that comes with fluency, apparently. No matter how good your auto-translator might be, it just isn’t the same as talking to a real person.

Case in point: this screenshot of a Facebook-translated horse listing, submitted by reader Lynn H. “It started in Italian… but…”

“I think ‘piano walks’ are mean to mean walks on level ground,” Lynn explained. “I remember from history that a piano nobile is a fancy floor in a great house. The word piano in this sense stems from a Latin root word meaning level — forgive me, I forget the Latin word. Piano as a musical instrument comes from a different root stemming from a shortening of pianoforte.”

“I am still puzzled by baptisms of the saddle.”

Good effort, Facebook. Thanks for the laugh!