"Out of the Office" E-mail Ends Up On Welsh Road Sign

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Cardiff street, Wales

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An e-mail mix-up led a town in Wales to create a road sign that read "I am not in the office at the moment" in Welsh.

Officials in the coastal town of Swansea wanted to erect a sign that read "No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only" in both official languages. They e-mailed the original English text to a translation service. Soon after, they received an automated e-mail reply written in Welsh that read ""I am not in the office at the moment. Please send any work to be translated". The officials mistook the automated reply to be the translated message and printed it on their road sign.

By law, all road signs in Wales must be written in both English and Welsh. This is not the first time that there has a been mishap translating signs into Welsh. A sign that read "Cyclists Dismount" in English was mistranslated into Welsh as "bladder inflammation upset".