translation fail

I’m translating a piece on Las Fallas – Valencia’s wonderful firework fiestas – and, as usual, I started off running the text through the Google translator to see if it would save me time.

Sadly, Google opts for an altogether different meaning for falla. This means that the phrase:

En la oficina de turismo podrás encontrar información sobre las diferentes rutas para contemplar las fallas más espectaculares.

becomes:

In the tourist office you can find information about different routes to see the most spectacular failures.

Perhaps human translators will be needed for a while yet.

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Author: don't confuse the narrator

Exploring the boundary between writer and narrator through first person poetry, prose and opinion

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