Not Screams - it's Whispers!Is a mischievous or bored person altering translations from Polish to English, or is it a real estate agent keen to not scare off English-speaking buyers? On the latter, I am only half-joking - nothing much would surprise me. With some online translation services, users can input their own ideas on "better translations".
Take the Microsoft translation for this property for rent in an area of Wrocław known as Krzyki.
As you can see from the screen-capture I have attached, MS Live Search Translate changes the word Krzyki not to "screams" which is, as far as I know, usually the correct translation (although some dictionaries say it means "shouts"), but instead, to "whispers". A far nicer word for English-speakers perhaps, when thinking of buying or renting property in an area!
"Scream" - although positive to some in that it can mean having a ball, having a good time or laugh, is far less of a positive word in regards to real estate sales than the English word "whispers", - a word which suggests quiet and calm, peace and tranquility to a much greater degree than the other word.
If you walk around Krzyki you will see the usual graffiti that many parts of Wrocław has, and when last I checked in plain English there was still the now quite old scrawl "South Screams hooligans" on a garage wall by an apartment block.
Even if this translation error is somehow a quirky accident, I find it intriguing and amusing because it seems so unlikely to be accidental.
(The correct word in Polish for "whispers" is I think "szepcze". Google Translate has the word with its correct meaning, by the way.)
