Wednesday, November 08, 2006

House fire? Grab a donkey ...

A fire safety leaflet translated from English to Urdu advises people to grab the nearest donkey when escaping from a building.

Strathclyde Fire and Rescue produced the leaflet for ethnic communities across Scotland.

The English text on the leaflet reads: "Never jump straight out of a window, lower yourself on to cushions etc."

Donkey

But when translated into Urdu says: "Never jump out of a window straight. Put yourself on a donkey etc and come down."

Teacher Ilfan Malik explained: "The Urdu word for cushion is gadda. But the word for donkey is gadha.

"It appears whoever translated the leaflet has mixed the two words up or the spelling has been printed wrongly."

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