Until we had the kitchen modernised around four years ago it contained a small wood-burning cooker. The stove threw out a lot of heat, and when the central-heating broke down when we were over with Fabio, a year or so before we moved here permanently, it kept us warm over a couple of very cold December days. Pat has always hankered to have it replaced and today a new one arrived. The instruction manual was complete with an ‘English’ translation. But like too many translations here it hadn’t been done by a native speaker. Pat was trying to fit the control for switching the heat from the hot-plate to the cooker. The’English’ version read:
“HOB COOKING: when the bar is pushed to the back of the cooker, the combustion gases flow around the oven [my italics] …
OVEN COOKING: when the control bar is pulled out, the combustion gases flow around the oven [my italics] … “
which makes no sense at all. If you can read Italian you discover it should have read, respectively, “flow above the oven …” and “all around the oven … ” which does.
Such solecisms are pretty typical here, often with comical results. Guide books frequently mis-translate suggestivo [evocative or attractive] inviting the reader to admire the suggestive views! One wonders why businesses are so reluctant to spend a few bob getting their translations checked by a native speaker and thereby avoid making complete idiots of themselves.
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