Comp USA vs. The English Language
by Jason at 6:25 am on June 25th, 2004 in General
Click image for a full-size version
You would think that a gigantic mega-retailer such as Comp USA would realize that products sold in the United States should have instructions in English. You would be mistaken. Click the image at left to see the instruction sheet for my recently-purchased hard drive enclosure, which seems to be written in some sort of secret code. I’m not exactly sure what a “machine plank” is, nor do I know how to “cover up and down to separate then and completely”, but at least I “can immediately trust the usage”. Good to know.
Me fail English? Unpossible!
jean-paul wrote:
ah, good old fashioned laugh-out-loud funny sans outrage.
Posted 25 Jun 2004 at 8:07 am ¶
tom wrote:
i think they babel fished it.
Posted 25 Jun 2004 at 8:59 am ¶
sac wrote:
Yep, definitely Babelfish. AS a tech writer, this concerns me. I thought that my field would be safe from outsourcing overseas as complete fluency is important when writing boring-ass manuals. Apparently, I am mistaken.
Posted 25 Jun 2004 at 5:04 pm ¶
tom wrote:
you should see the manuals for synths made by companies like yamaha or akai. those joints can make absolutely no sense or be so dull its amazing, and theyre like 100 pages long or more.
Posted 25 Jun 2004 at 8:46 pm ¶
trout wrote:
roland is well known for this through the 80s. old roland manuals are written in rolandese. they’ve gotten better since then. i haven’t looked at yammy or akai ones, but can imagine.
Posted 29 Jun 2004 at 5:56 am ¶
Jason wrote:
I think all old keyboard manuals were like that…I once owned an old Korg DSS-1 sampler with a manual the size of a telephone book…a telephone book from Osaka, perhaps. Because there certainly wasn’t much inside that conformed to any notion of English literacy.
Posted 29 Jun 2004 at 3:17 pm ¶