Czenglish

by Lauren Nemec

Turns out the Chinese are not the only ones having problems with poor restaurant menu translations.

I've just returned from a lovely lunch with my mother-in-law at a delicious Italian restaurant here in Prague. We had a nice laugh over the menu selections, which included items such as:

-Mozzarela cheese lavred wuth sloves of tomatoes and fresch basil
-Grilled proper salat with jogurt dresink
-Pizza with pineaplle tomtoes and chees
-Salad with nightshade and smokem cheese with 1000s islands dresink

I appreciate that restaurants are translating their menus into English. I can hold my own with food-related Czech, but there is always the fear of ordering liver or stomach by mistake. But I have to wonder: why do nice establishments spend so much money on printing beautiful, glossy menus with tassels and vellum paper only to overlook the importance of printing correctly translated menu items?

Translatus should go around Prague translating restaurant menus for free in exchange for adding a "Translated by Translatus" notice on the menu. Hmm.. there's an idea...