Lost in Translation: check please!

I was perusing the menu at my favourite Mandarin Chinese restaurant this week, prior to enjoying a fabulous meal. My favourite entree is the seared duck bill with Sechzuan sauce. If I am truthful, I just enjoy the contrariness of asking for 'the bill' at the beginning of the meal but I draw the line at asking the waiter if he has 'duck's feet' or is it just his ill-fitting shoes?

Pardon my digression. Looking through the menu reminded of the joys of Translation software and the early attempts to translate the English language into other tongues, with varying degrees of success.

The first attempts included a translation application for US Senators to permit them to better correspond with and understand their foreign counterparts.

One senator was selected to attend a demonstration and was most impressed by the presentation until he asked for a practical test. He was asked to provide an English phrase that the team could translate and he chose 'Out of sight, out of mind!'.

The application team entered the phrase, which duly returned in Mandarin Chinese. Unfortunately none of the team understood Mandarin and the senator certainly did not. He thought it was a fruit and of course, the team thought he was.

With great confidence the team re-entered the Chinese translation into the application, claiming they could re-translate it back into English. This was duly done and the machine spat out the phrase 'Invisible, idiot!'