Saturday, February 04, 2012
Lost in translation.
Whenever I feel I’m at a loss for topics to write about or am struggling with examples to peel apart and examine, from time to time, opportunities seem to just fall into my lap. I ordered a small on-board camera to use with my new hobby and was quite happy when it arrived in the mail this week. I’ve been looking into what camera setups people have been using with their R/C cars and decided to check out a less-costly alternative to GoPro to get my feet wet. You know the old saying, “You get what you pay for”. It’s true and entertaining.
(Too) easy to share.
After the camera arrived on my desk, I quickly opened up the package and checked it all out. In a state of joy, I snapped a picture of the camera box and tweeted it to Chris Sherman. We’ve been discussing the R/C hobby for a while and on-board cameras has become a recent topic of interest for us. After a while I glanced down at the box in which the camera was packaged. There was a phrase toward the bottom of the box that I hadn’t noticed before. I slowly read it, each word causing my eyes to widen and my pulse to quicken. It wasn’t an blatantly bad message, but it was suggestive. Very suggestive. Hilarity then ensued.
A friend of mine had also seen the picture and made a comment about the wording on the box and we exchanged messages about it and it’s strange phrasing. I was asked, by more than a few people, where I bought the camera from. It was purchased from hobbypartz.com, not some x-rated website as the wording on box would tend to suggest. My guess is the wording was a poor translation to English from another language. This thought was reaffirmed when I opened the instruction manual.
Broken phrases and broken confidence.
Aside from the amusing “marketing” copy that adorned the front of the camera box, I was was stuck with one glaring issue. I had no idea how to turn the camera on. I saw the power button but there wasn’t a clear indication of whether or not the camera was on (note: I was charging the camera at the time, so every light on the unit was lit up, blinking, and communicating with the mother-ship). I turned to the manual for help, only to find frustration and more amusement.
The manual for this camera reads like nothing I’ve ever encountered before. It’s broken, in more ways than one. Does it serve the purpose that it was intended? It tries, but it’s (and again, I’m guessing here) translation is so disjointed and off-balance that I became lost and had to re-read many of the sections more than twice to try to comprehend what the manufacture was trying to say. Here are some samples from the manual for your entertainment (and possible bewilderment).
After numerous attempts to understand what the manual was trying to say, I gave up on reading it and unplugged the camera from the charger. I was quickly able to figure out which way to slide the power switch in order to turn the device on. Problem solved. Now on to recording video. After a few sideways glances at the instruction manual (in hopes it had been re-written while I wasn’t looking) I was able to piece together a basic idea of what buttons to press. From the looks of it, I was able to figure things out. What a rough ride to get there.
Mixed messages.
Trying this back to a “teachable moment”, I pose this question to those of you that are in the business of educating and training customers which, by my last count, includes everyone that runs a business. Are you sending mixed messages to your customers? Is the information that you’re creating for your products and in support of your products clear and understandable? It’s clear to me that the company behind this camera is not based in the United States and they’ve taken a stab at translating their wording, both for marketing and support purposes, into English, but they miss the mark in both message and assistance. As for their cover phrase…I have no clue what they’re trying to accomplish. To be honest, that wording was nowhere to be seen on the hobby site or in the description (not that I expected it to be there). If the name of the camera manufacturer would be clearly written anywhere on the box, I’d go as far as saying I wouldn’t purchase another product made by them in the future. Both for the semi-inappropriate packaging language and the incomprehensible instructions.
