Google Translate Tricked Cubs Fans Unintentionally

Posted on April 1st, 2008 by Akky Akimoto

Former Chunichi Dragon's baseball player Kosuke Fukudome made an inpressive debut at Major League Baseball opening game at Chicago.

Strange thing is, many fans at the ballpark were raising Japanese signboards "偶然だぞ", which means "It was lucky" (or you can read it as "It was accidental").

Guuzendazo means “you were lucky”

The game was also broadcasted in Japan on NHK Satellite, so that many reports were posted to the biggest Japanese BBS 2-channel. Some said that Chicago Cubs fans are so serious about baseball that they pepped Fukudome "You are luckily here, be humble", but it sounds unlikely.

Finally, one pointed out that Google Translate generates the exact Japanese sentence from, you know, "It's gonna happen".

“It’s gonna happen” wrongly translated by Google

By the way, Fukudome's "Fuku" may remind you of something else, however "Fuku" means "luck" in Japanese. Those signboards were partially correct by fuku.

via nikkan-thread-guide

Author Information  @akky(Akky AKIMOTO) is one of the first pro-bloggers in Japan [J]. He also leads Asiajin, writes for Japan Times, does consultation for foreign companies interested in entering Japanese web market.

Tags: Japan // 11 Comments »

  • http://www.japanprobe.com/?p=4160 Japan Probe

    fans were reminding him to be humble. But ironically the signs seem to be telling us how they were mistakenly made: by a fluke of how Google Translate coincidentally handled the English phrase “It’s gonna happen.” Read more and see a video atAsiaJin

  • http://bulknews.vox.com/library/post/fukudome-your-three-hits-was-an-accident.html miyagawa
  • http://xlii.sblo.jp 42

    松浦晋也のL/D: テレビを巡る終わりの始ま.. 小惑星探査機「はやぶさ2」｜月・惑星探査..Google Translate tricked Cubs fans thoug..ニコニコニュース‐JASRACとの契約締結のご.. 国際宇宙ステーション搭乗宇宙飛行士募集:J.. TechCrunch Japanese アーカイブ Wikiped.. 4Gamer.net ― 「日本のオンラインゲーム市..

  • http://www.ickypeople.com ICKY PEOPLE

    cheering newcomer Japanese outfielder Kosuke Fukudome were putting up Japanese signs reading, “Guuzen Dazo”, which means “It was lucky.” An alternate reading would be, “it was accidental.” It turns out Google’s translation page was to blame.read more

  • http://www.aboutcolonblank.com About Colon Blank :: The Daily Updated Procrastinators Wet Dream!

    but the geek fans were, instead, illustrating a flaw in Google Translate which translated their banner too “It was lucky” (or you can read it as “It was accidental”). At least they tried and showed a little bit of initiative eh!Sourcevia Get your regular fix – subscribe to the About:Blank RSS feed! Posted in About:Doh, About:Stuff 1 Comment »

  • http://www.durf.org Durf.org

    The news this morning featured plenty of amused commentary on the signs Cubs fans were holding up to cheer on Fukudome Kosuke as he almost hit for the cycle. Asiajin has a nice explanation of what happened here:Google Translate tricked Cubs fans thoughtlessly. It turns out that Google’s toy could have used a bit of that user improvement before someone grabbed the Japanese rendering of “It’s gonna happen” there, which was for some reason 偶然だぞ. Telling your team

  • http://ameblo.jp/monsterworks MONSTER WORKS

    via:Google Translate tricked Cubs fans thoughtlessly | Asiajinおいっ！けなしとるやんけっ(￣□￣;)!! まさに爆笑ですね　なんでも本当は“It’s gonna happen”と言う意味を日本語で表示したかったそうですが、

  • http://plaza.rakuten.co.jp/slowsheep/diary/200804090000/ 偶然だぞ！ – 雅の日記〜お気楽生活をめざして – 楽天ブログ（Blog）

    実はこれは米googleのせいらしい。 米googleの日本語翻訳で”It’s gonna happen！”を翻訳すると「偶然だぞ」と表記されていた。アメリカのカブスファンは当然、ちゃんと訳せていると思い、忠実に「偶然だぞ！」を書き綴ったり、拡大コピーしてプラカードを作ったのだろう。

  • http://aokabi.way-nifty.com/wallpaper/2008/05/post_7b68.html Innovation/イノベーション壁新聞

    さて、そんな地元のファンが急ごしらえの応援をしているらしい。 ネタ元：Asiajin「偶然だぞ！」って決して応援している様には見えません。「お前はたまたまラッキーなだけだから、調子付くなよ！」という様に見えます。ネタ元の

  • http://tonnet.blogspot.com/2008/04/translating-with-google.html Cogitate Do Not Vegetate

    Don’t get Google tricked you on important issues. Follow thelink.

  • http://asiajin.com/blog/2010/02/07/real-time-translation-scouter-is-tested-in-yamanashi-japan/ Asiajin » Real-time Translation Scouter Is Tested In Yamanashi, Japan

    [...] machine translation, because even text-to-text machine translation gives me very bad results (for example). I want to try it if they come to [...]

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