Google Translate is great for those who wish to browse news stories on foreign websites or get some help with that Spanish homework. However, the free language translation tool has its limitations and its translations can often be lost in translation, as Norway’s Olympic Team chefs recently learned.
The Norwegian camp needed some eggs for its athletes competing at the 2018 Winter Games in South Korea and turned to Google Translate for help drafting an order with a local Korean grocery store.
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But when a truck load of eggs arrived at their kitchen in Pyeongchang, they learned a translation error converted their order of 1,500 eggs to 15,000 eggs.
“There was literally no end to the delivery. Absolutely unbelievable,” chef Ståle Johansen told Norway’s Aftenposten.
Fortunately, the chefs were allowed to return the extra 13,500 eggs, but they say Norwegian athletes in need of protein can still expect a lot egg-wise.
"There will be omelets, boiled and fried eggs and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs. And we hope there will be a lot of sugar bread made for medal winners. We have made our provisions for that," Johansen told Aftenposten.
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Johansen said they serve the Norwegian team around the clock, and if the chefs run out of provisions, at least they'll know not to draft an order on Google Translate.
