Theatre website gets lost in translation

EXPATRIATES browsing the website for Malaga’s Cervantes Theatre in English were left rolling about laughing last week due to automatic translations resulting in a number of hilarious errors.

Those looking for season tickets (abonos) for the Philharmonic Orchestra were amazed to find they had to click on a button labelled fertilizers, while over 65s were invited to buy manure over 65.

These were just the most obvious of a number of translation errors spotted by users on the website in both English and German, whose complaints eventually resulted in the theatre management closing down the translated pages and announcing a translator would be employed.

Other bloopers included the word under referring to base instruments, address for stage and musical directors and villages for tickets for specific seat locations.

Information in German suffered similar issues with the contact us button reportedly using Berührung, a word used to describe physical contact.

Automatic systems also made it almost impossible for non-detectives to decipher the phone number for the theatre, as in both English and German they changed the middle of the number (902 36 02 95) into the word February, inviting readers to dial 902 36 February 95.

The theatre’s new manager Juan Antonio Vigar explained that the information had been removed from the site and a translator would be employed as is fitting for the province’s largest theatre, which has said that attracting more expatriates to events is one of its main priorities.