An Olympic Error!

So, Olympic fever has subdued. During the last two weeks, all eyes have been on London, which became the most linguistically diverse city in the world. Us Brits will probably talking about it for years to come (1966 World Cup win, anyone?) and about how we inspired a nation. Well, that’s all very well. But lets get down to what this blog is all about. Translation. There was one translation mistake that hit headlines across the world and served as a great deal of embarrassment... At Westfield Shopping centre, 'Welcome to London' signs were erected in various languages. A nice, welcoming gesture. That is until we see that not only was the Arabic text written backwards and also not joined up to form a coherent Arabic text. It does beg the question as to how the error was not spotted before the banner was printed off and the sign put up. Thankfully no major offence was caused but it does highlight the importance of proofreading, which is why at Linguaspirit, your translated documents are always proofread by a second translator.