All languages have their own unique idioms and expressions which are understood by native-speakers of the language but are very puzzling to others.  When you think of the English language, we have our own idioms, expressions, slang phrases, "play on words", acronyms, taglines, marketing phrases and even unique brand names which all make sense to us.  But most of the time, these are very difficult to translate and should be avoided when writing documents or developing websites which will be used in global marketing or translated for others around the world.

I came across a perfect example of this from strangely enough a podcast I listen to called WeatherBrains - a podcast where a group of meterologists discuss weather terms and forecasting.  They were discussing this list of how the phrase "it's raining cats and dogs" has been translated into other languages around the world.  Here is a link to the entire list on the Omniglot website.

I've listed a few of the more unique translations below as an example:

• CZECH -  "Padají trakaře" - "It's raining wheelbarrows"
• HAITIAN CREOLE - "Chyen ap bwe nan nen" - "Dogs are drinking in their noses"
• NORWEGIAN - "Det regner trollkjerringer" - "It's raining female trolls"
• RUSSIAN - "Льёт как из ведра (Lijot kak iz vedra)" - "It's pouring like from a bucket"
• CHINESE (Cantonese) - "落狗屎 (lohk gáusí)" - "Dog poo is falling"

Quite a difference from language to language!  When you are preparing original documents which will be translated into other languages, it's best to stay with regular, basic words and stay away from the idioms, expressions, and casual slang.

If you have any questions, please contact us when preparing your original documents for language translation.