lost in transation...

A while back I got an email from a friend in America. She had received an email from a Russian speaking person, the person wrote in English, but something got lost in translation.

The confusing words were in the form of a question:

Can be eat phone?

At first glance I thought “this guy is a nut!” Then I read it again. I laughed. And I wrote back to my friend. The Russian verb ‘to eat’ is the same as one of the verbs that means ‘to have’.

So the question should be:

Is there a phone?

When trying to write in a foreign language do not rely solely on an electronic translator… it just might lead you astray!