Translation Bloopers: Glissant Surfaces

The sign below was posted on the Ontario side of the Niagara Falls. It warns passengers disembarking from the tour boat to take care. The French is garbled (translated word for word), and was probably produced either through a dictionary look-up by a non-native speaker or by computer software. For years, amused French-speaking tourists took photos of it to show their friends but no one bothered informing the boat operators. Message: you won’t necessarily be told by foreign readers if your text is laughably bad.

Courtesy of ATA