highlighting wonky translations gives language learners permission to make mistakes

We all know the language-learning app Duo:

Duolingo - The world's best way to learn a language

It's just opened a gallery in Tokyo:

Language-learning app Duolingo has opened a ‘Museum of Wonky English’ in Harajuku, Tokyo, and is giving mundane phrases that have been mistranslated new and surprising meanings. In one, viewers see a coffee pot with a sign next to it reading: “When coffee is gone, it’s over.” As well as the in-person event and hero film, Duolingo is inviting people to share their own mistranslations on Twitter, with the best submissions being exhibited in the museum.

Ad Of The Day: Duolingo Creates Exhibition Of Dodgy Translations In Tokyo | The Drum

Here's the short film:

Museum of Wonky English | Duolingo - YouTube

The advertising industry likes it:

Duolingo launches Japan’s Museum of Wonky English - More About Advertising

As does the design industry:

'urinate with elegance': duolingo exhibits wonky english mistranslations in tokyo

And the teaching of English industry.

Here's the ever-vigilant Liz Granirer:

UltraSuperNew is a creative agency in Tokyo and it’s recently opened a new exhibit sponsored by the language learning app Duolingo at its UltraSuperNew Gallery that heroes ‘bad’ translations of English into Japanese. Examples include ‘Please urinate with precision and elegance’ and ‘Please do not eat children and elderly’. In fact, you can giggle at 16 of these deliciously mistranslated statements and even submit ones you discover. The ones chosen to be exhibited alongside those already in the museum win a month’s free subscription to Super Duolingo. That’s because Duolingo has always championed wonky translations, believing that highlighting them gives language learners permission to make mistakes.

“Why do mistakes have such a bad rep?” asks UltraSuperNew’s associate creative director, Andrés Aguilar, as reported by lbbonline.com. “They’re the unsung language-learning heroes and we wanted this campaign to settle the scores. There’s a treasure trove of meanings you can only access when lost in translation and that’s what we wanted people to experience in the Museum of Wonky English.”

Tokyo has a new attraction for those who enjoy ‘bad’ translations | E L Gazette

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