The president of Telus Quebec is apologizing to francophones after one of the telecom company's Twitter handles posted a series of tweets that were horrendously translated and widely ridiculed.
Francois Gratton released a statement today apologizing to Quebecers and saying the Tweets should never have been posted.
He says the Telus Fund, an independent non-profit entity funded by Telus to promote health and well-being, sent out a series of messages on its English and French Twitter feeds on Tuesday.
The English ones contained such feelgood catchphrases as "Take a deep breath. Ground yourself. Go kill it."
The French ones, however, were apparently run through Google Translate, with hilarious — or, depending on your point of view, embarrassing — results.
"Take a deep breath. Ground yourself. Go kill it." became "Prenez une profonde respiration. Broyez-vous. Va le tuer." In other words, the French translation is inviting you to literally grind yourself, and go kill someone or something.
Other phrases, such as "Arrêtez la glorification de l'inoccupé," "Vous devez nourrir (vous) s'épanouir," and "Si vous êtes fatigué. Apprenez à vous reposer, ne quittez pas," make just about as much sense to francophones.
Twitter users in Quebec had a field day poking fun at the horrible translation job — "'Boss, I think we’re going viral in Quebec.' 'Great, send more inspirational quotes,'" wrote one francophone Twitter user in English. Others offered their translation services — for a fee.
Jean-Paul Perreault, the head of the pro-French group Impératif Français, was among those who wasn't laughing, suggesting Telus' translation goof was disrespectful to Quebec francophones.
"We could laugh about it, but this wasn't a trivial mistake," he wrote. "It's a big deal that a large company like Telus doesn't have an internal culture that respects Quebec and French-speaking people."
-CJAD 800's Richard Deschamps contributed to this report.