Atlas Translations: News

Atlas Newsletter – April 2008

Eurovision Song Contest hits Belgrade

The final round of this year's Eurovision Song Contest is soon to be held in Belgrade, Serbia. A total of 43 countries will participate in what will be the 53 rd Eurovision. The final stages of the event will be covered by Eurovision.tv between 10th and 25th of May, with the final broadcast live on 24 th of May.

Representing the UK is singer and songwriter Andy Abraham, who won the majority of the UK televotes after performing the song Even If . Having risen to fame whilst participating in the popular UK TV show X Factor, Andy has now sold half a million records.

This year's entry for Ireland is popstar, TV personality and wannabe politician Dustin the Turkey, who will be singing Irelande Douze Pointe . The singing puppet has been a star in Ireland since the 1990s, when he joined RTÉ's children's television programme The Den alongside the popular British duo Zig and Zag. Dustin currently presents The Once A Week Show on an Irish TV channel.

Dustin the Turkey

Dustin is no stranger to the world of pop - he has already released six successful albums and twelve singles, had numerous number ones and has sung with the likes of Bob Geldof, Chris De Burgh, Boyzone and Joe Dolan. Dustin has also made his mark in the Irish political arena, running mock campaigns for a number of presidential elections as a representative of ‘Fianna Fowl' and the 'Poultry Party'. Though the puppet has never run as an official candidate, hundreds of voters spoiled their votes in the elections of 1997 by writing Dustin's name on their ballot papers.

In spite of his huge fame, however, Dustin's Eurovision entry has provoked uproar amongst some of the population, who believe it will make a mockery of both the contest and the nation's talent. Former Irish winner Dana, who represented the country in 1970 with All Kinds Of Everything said:

“If we think it's such a big joke then let's get out of it…The problem is they love puppets in Europe. If, God forbid, he wins, we'll probably have more puppets than people in next year's Eurovision.”

Dustin, on the other hand, sees the contest as an opportunity to further his political career outside of Ireland and says that he is currently engaged in talks with major European political parties with a view to launching a bid for the presidency of the EU:

"As my good friend Dana has already been an MEP, there's now a tradition of Irish birds from Eurovision ending up in Brussels – so yes I can declare that a vote for Ireland in this year's Eurovision is in fact a vote for a greater Europe as it will without question catapult me to my rightful place as President Of Europe."

Atlas welcomes back Mrs. Davies!

Anna

Newlywed Atlas Project Manager, Anna Davies, neé Counsell, has now returned from her honeymoon and has kindly allowed us to include photos of the big day in this month's issue.

The wedding took place on 29th March and according to Anna it was “amazing”.

“We had such a lovely day - it was perfect - just as we wanted it! The honeymoon was fantastic - one week in Orlando visiting the theme parks and then a second week relaxing on the beach in the Bahamas!”

Anna2

Sharing the joke

Humour has always been a notoriously difficult form of language to translate. So when it comes to exporting sitcoms, the British TV industry has sometimes struggled. A typical example of how comedy can get horribly lost in translation was seen when Fawltey Towers aired in Spain: the performance of the bumbling, long-suffering Spanish waiter, Manuel, was always one of the key components of this comedy series. Unfortunately, his shaky grasp of the English language and the resulting comical mistakes were impossible to translate back into meaningful, comic Spanish. Thus, the character was first changed into an Italian called Paolo but when he also failed to amuse the Spaniards, Manuel was reincarnated, only this time as a Mexican!

A sit-com with more universal appeal was Absolutely Fabulous, in which the drunken antics of fash-pack D-Listers, Patsy and Eddie, took fashion-conscious France by storm and even inspired a French feature film called Absolument Fabuleux in 2001.

More recently, the Office has enjoyed worldwide success and currently airs in 90 countries, with remakes in the US, France and Germany, even though the original British version starring Ricky Gervais ended in 2003. Evidently feeling exasperated at work is something that all of us can relate to!

Double Entendre

Two Italian women recently ended up on a wild goose chase, which lead them half way across Europe, purely because of a misunderstanding resulting from the misinterpretation of place name. After arranging to meet their niece in Monaco the two women, who were born in the Dominican Republic, drove from Trento in Northern Italy, across the Alps, to Germany, where they planned to collect their niece from a Paris to Munich train.

A spokesperson for Munich police commented: "The problem was they thought Munich was Monaco." This is because Monaco, in Italian, can refer to both the small principality on the French Riviera and Monaco di Baviera aka Munich, Germany.

When the niece failed to turn up at the train station, the women contacted local police, whom it then took an hour and a half to establish that the girl in question was actually waiting in a different country, since neither of the women spoke any German and their niece was travelling without a mobile telephone.

Upon learning the whereabouts of their niece, the women then had to journey a further 840km to Monaco in order to pick her up.

More translation blunders

This month, the winner is a clothing label that one of Atlas' suppliers, Pat sent in. We are speechless and off to do some micro therm smoothing!!

Washing Instructions

Press/Public Relations

Press Office
Atlas Translations Ltd
Clare Suttie
Director
Phone: +44 (0)20 7240 6666
Contact Press Office
Site: www.atlas-translations.co.uk

If you would like to automatically receive the latest releases from our company, please contact: Clare Suttie

Thank you!