Sacrebleu! Googleplex insists Bush is still le président américain

Google wonks beavering away at translating snippets of French into the English language might wish to take note of the following fact - their system thinks "le président américain" is "Bush". That's George W Bush, we suppose. Reg reader Robert spotted the amusing cockup when he tried to translate an article from daily French …

[Anonymous Coward]

Never mind that....

...what the hell is a "cease fire teacher" and how do I become one?

[Anonymous Coward]

Was it not Le Mond

That reported the British Olympic Cycle Team were helped by the rounder wheels on their bicycles?

Slightly off topic I know, but I just wanted a dig at the French.

[Gerhard den Hollander]

Re: Was it not Le Mond

LeMond was (and most likely still is by the time you read this) an American cyclist.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Never mind that....

First of all, you need to master "stop, Hammer time", glasshoppa...

[toxicdragon]

Re: Never mind that....

Glass hopping sounds dangerous

[benjymous]

It's just because Google Translate has a "suggest a better translation" option - enough people must've corrected badly translated stories about Bush that it's decided that this is the best translation.

[Aldous]

bush didn't loose

he did two terms maximum allowed after FDR hogged the white house. i just defended bush now i need a shower as i feel dirty

[Destroy All Monsters]

Re: bush didn't loose

You shouldn't feel any better about FDR's whoring for his 4 terms.

Anyone interested in the pretty hilarious and depressing antics he deployed to stay (and die) in office while riding roughshod over any principle of decency and propriety is advised to read John Flynn's The Roosevelt Myth. You will wonder why anyone would name a street after such a guy.

[Peter Murphy]

You will wonder why anyone would name a street after such a guy.

Winning WWII might have something to do with it.

[Stoneshop]

Re: bush didn't loose

If you want to use the Grammar Pedant icon, make sure your pedanticism is up to snuff.

Primo, your title should read: "Bush didn't lose" (note the capital and the single letter 'o'), and secundo, "being cut loose from" does in no way imply that he lost some election, just that he exited the White House.

[nuked]

"pedanticism"

'pedantry' would be better.

[Stoneshop]

Re: "pedanticism"

Pedanticisiology

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: bush didn't loose

he just came second.

Daddy's judges gave him the presidency (and yes, I have checked the results/figures/reports.)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: bush didn't loose

Didn't loose what? The dogs of war?

[LesB]

Muphry's Law strikes again

It's a well-known phenomenon...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muphry's_law

[Cliff]

Crowdsource, hive mind, etc

Just goes to show basing facts on the accumulated wisdom of the masses is risky ;-)

[Mr. Great Sage]

Everyone is wrong! Learn your government people!

This is a Monarchy, and Obama was just the illegitimate son of Bush, who succeeded him. Gah.

[Destroy All Monsters]

Yes, commander! The president's brain is missing!

I knew that there was a brain transplant involved. Policy decisions wouldn't make sense otherwise. Though how did give the president's brain a new speech processing area?

[Anonymous Coward]

Now lets be fair here...

You can't blame Bush for paying Google up front for 4 terms so that they would keep his name in their system. He was simply a bit too eager. Besides; how was he supposed to know he would only last 2 terms? ;-)

[Cameron Colley]

Sadly my favourite Google mistranslation is gone now.

A famous Dutch Christmas-time character was translated as Hilary Duff.

I'm not sure who'd the most creepy.

[John Robson]

Lies, damned lies and statistics.

And which does Google use for translation? Statistics.

Slightly surprising that Bush is still the most common translation for POTUS.

[mraak]

This would imply that

Google Translate is dumber than Dumbia himself. No seriously, why is Google full of these half assed products lately? Reminds me of MS more and more.

[andreas koch]

It's a default answer:

If you type in "partes privees* de Paris" it'll probably also say "Bush".

*CBA to find an accent aigu... probably hiding behind a - - - nevermind, forget it.

[Henry Wertz 1]

What bothers me...

is that it's not a proper translation. I'd guess that phrase means "the American president". It doesn't mean a specific American president, so the translation would be incorrect even if it translated as "Obama".

[Sceptic Tank]

Re: What bothers me...

Oy!!! Who are you to question what the Americans say? Here, take a Bunker Buster to get rid of your ruler and replace him with a pro-American democracy.