Eloise HorsfieldIN a major faux pas the Catalan government has used Google to translate its new website from Catalan to English, with comic effect.
In particular the search giant got into a little difficulty when it came to the names that led to the current President Artur Mas becoming ‘The President More’ and even ‘More President’.
Unbelievably Councillor Josep Maria Pelegri was transformed into ‘Joseph and Mary Pilgrim’.
And in the list of ex presidents Josep Tarradellas inexplicably became ‘George Washington’.
The website has now been suspended while it is updated.
Or of course, another way of looking at it, is that Google’s translation is amazingly accurate bearing in mind that it is not a human doing the translation. Proper noun mistakes, such as the ones mentioned, are extremely minor errors. I’m sure Google will not lose any sleep over this lol.