DUBAI:Anyone living as an expat will be all too familiar with some of the occasions where the meaning of a word or sentence is lost in translation.
Not least in the Middle East where literal translations can lead to some baffling and amusing outcomes.
One such occasion was spotted by Hend Amry, who tweets under @LibyaLiberty at the Erbil International Hotel in Iraq.
What was apparently the common dish of meatballs was labeled “Paul is dead.”
Amry’s tweet has now gone viral, but as well as pointing out the amusing error, she did also manage to explain the likely reason behind the strange, but nonetheless amusing translation.
“The Arabic spells out a transliteration of ‘meat ball’ in English – which sounds like ‘mayit baul,’ or Dead Paul,” she explained.
Best translation fail. The arabic spells out a transliteration of 'meat ball' in English - which sounds like 'mayit baul', or Dead Paul. pic.twitter.com/zReTm93Gg8
— Hend Amry (@LibyaLiberty) August 28, 2017
