Filed under: Humor, Bad Apple, MacBook
Zut alors! MacBook announcement doesn't translate well
Thanks to what appears to be a character encoding problem on a French version of the Apple website, the MacBook announcement -- meant to say "perfectly designed" in French -- came out reading "perfectly dumb" (or as one of our tipsters said, a more vulgar version of "perfectly poopy").
That wasn't the only problem: according to Macenstein, a Macgeneration article noted that the announcements were replete with spelling and grammatical errors. (Link is en français.)
The pages have since been updated with better grammar.
Unfortunately my decade-old high school French can't tell me what about the grammar is wrong, but hopefully our commenters can let us know by leaving a comment.
Thanks, Bertie and Fabrizio!
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
grynspan said 2:17PM on 10-15-2008
Uh, "con" doesn't mean "poopy." Rather, it's cognate with an English word that rhymes with "hunt."
Reply
h said 1:32PM on 11-18-2008
Although you're right, that's the literal term, and it's not used as such often. In comparison, how would you translate the "douchebag" insult?
"Con" is dumb/stupid/idiot, figuratively. "Conçu" is the term they wanted to use (curious as to how Tuaw treats those encoding too).
Scott said 4:33PM on 10-15-2008
Wow. Burnt. Next time try not to pretend like you know a foreign language just because you used an internet translator.
grynspan said 4:39PM on 10-15-2008
No, not burnt. My post concerned the translation given in the original post: "con" does not, even in slang, mean "poopy" or any more vulgar version of that word as was stated in the original post.
RDag said 6:48PM on 10-15-2008
grynspan, tu est un vrai con.
con is short for connard (masculin). Au feminin, conne or connace.
Typical of such terms, the feminine version tends to come off harsher than the masculine. In Quebec, con/conne are common, but the Frenchmen I know seem to enjoy connard and connace for the singular, and the plural: cons.
Amusing to some, the Conservative Party of Canada is referred to as The Cons. They did very poorly in Quebec in yesterday's national election.
Con is used in much the same manner and frequency as the word idiot (or moron). Synonyms include a twit, a dolt, a douchenozzle, a guy who doesn't know wtf he is talking about.
Parfaitement con is a legitimate and amusing use of the word. For a french speaker (especially if he is a PeeCee) this gaffe is quite funny.
grynspan said 6:58PM on 10-15-2008
Way to beat the wrong dead horse, RDag. I'm aware the word has multiple meanings. None of them have, as the TUAW article suggests, any meaning similar to "poopy."
Robert Palmer said 7:02PM on 10-15-2008
To be clear, the word that our tipster said was "shit," but that wasn't something I really wanted to put in a family-friendly article. I tried to "Ned Flanderize" the word, in the context of excrement.
As to whether or not it's accurate, I can't say; I always thought the French translation was "merde" ... but thought "con" could be a slang term or regionalization. As I said, I'll trust you all to sort it out, as my high school French classes did not include a chapter on swearing (sadly).
Matt Kern said 2:39PM on 10-15-2008
I think they were aiming for "conçu" not "con". I understand "con" more as "stupid person" rather than an English cognate that rhymes with "hunt", but it can mean different things in different areas.
Reply
Matt Kern said 2:44PM on 10-15-2008
I also don't believe that "unibody" is a French word, although, French readers that understand English would probably understand it, I'm not sure that strictly French readers would make sense of it. Correct me if I'm wrong.
h said 1:31PM on 11-18-2008
You're right, but as often with new technologies, they don't really translate (and don't translate well). I think it'd be the same with the spanish/german/asian version of the page.
hans said 3:07PM on 10-15-2008
Yep. Just checked.
German version: Präzisions-Unibody-Aluminiumgehäuse
Spanish: Unibody de precisión de aluminio
Japanese: 高精度アルミニウムユニボディ (Any japanese can see if they're using the kanas for the same pronunciation?)
grynspan said 4:13PM on 10-15-2008
I'm aware that con is not often used in the literal sense--I was saying more that "poopy" would not be an accurate translation. ;)
shunsky said 7:43PM on 10-15-2008
hans,
I'm Japanese, and that translation makes sense for me, and it's correct.
高= high, extraordinary, extremely
精度= precision, accuracy
アルミニウム= aluminum
ユニボディ= unibody
It is sometimes quite hard to "precisely" transform English pronunciation into Japanese Kana. It should be written アルーミナム if we try to follow the correct pronunciation. In this case, アルミニウム (a, lu, mi, ni, u, mu) is formal to describe an element "aluminum" in Japan :-)
In addition, if we translate "unibody" into Japanese, it can be said, "一体成形 筐体" (ittai seikei kyotai) or something.... - however we don't usually say that cuz it's easy to use imported words like "unibody (ユニボディ) :-P
----------------------------------------------------------
hans said 3:07PM on 10-15-2008
Yep. Just checked.
German version: Präzisions-Unibody-Aluminiumgehäuse
Spanish: Unibody de precisión de aluminio
Japanese: 高精度アルミニウムユニボディ (Any japanese can see if they're using the kanas for the same pronunciation?)
Balls said 2:41PM on 10-15-2008
I dont think it was a mistake.
Not having fw 400 at least is perfectly dumb.
And forcing your customers who purchased a $1799 30" LCD to buy a $100 adapter to use it with the new macbook is perfectly shitty.
Reply
Matt Kern said 2:45PM on 10-15-2008
Agreed.
samgross144 said 3:43PM on 10-15-2008
You used to not be able to do that at all. If anything, the ripoff is for the MacBook Pro customers, who used to have a full-sized Dual-DVI port, rather than MiniDisplayPort which needs that $99 adapter. It should be in the box (the MDP->DVI anyways). The previous gen white/black MacBooks first had a Mini-VGA, then with the late-2007 rev went to a Mini-DVI port that doesn't have dual-link.
Nate said 3:49PM on 10-15-2008
> Not having fw 400 at least is perfectly dumb.
There's nothing wrong with that. You can plug a FireWire 400 device into a FireWire 800 port. You just need a different cable. It's cheap too. ($6.75 at monoprice.com).
Balls said 3:53PM on 10-15-2008
@Nasty Nate
The ad in question is for the MacBook, right? MacBooks have neither FW400 nor 800, iirc.
Nate said 3:56PM on 10-15-2008
Whoops, you're right. I was thinking of the MacBook Pro which only has FW800.
Not sure why I'm "nasty" though.
Balls said 4:07PM on 10-15-2008
It's from Half Baked. Nasty Nate!
It was a term of endearment, sorry if you took offense :D