Poor walruses
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From Mark Swofford:
Here's a lighthearted Google Translate oddity from a newspaper article on the opening of ferry service between Taiwan and Ishigaki, Japan.
The relevant bit:
選在冬季開航，海象較差船舶易晃，影響旅客搭乘意願。洪郁航表示，首航至明年2月底將採試營運優惠價，最低優惠至2000元，而最大優惠價差高達2000元，提高民眾嘗試及體驗意願。
Google Translate renders the main part of that as:
"Choosing to sail in winter, ships with poor walruses are prone to shaking, which affects passengers' willingness to board."
But if one adds a comma, Google Translate does fine:
選在冬季開航，海象較差，船舶易晃，影響旅客搭乘意願。洪郁航表示，首航至明年2月底將採試營運優惠價，最低優惠至2000元，而最大優惠價差高達2000元，提高民眾嘗試及體驗意願。
"Launching the service during winter is problematic due to rough seas and potential ship swaying, which could discourage passengers from taking the trip."
Screenshot:
This fits right in with my recent post about the importance of the space in the tattooed declaration of the left flank of the French rugby player: "Parsing of a fated kin tattoo" (11/29/25).
Punctuation matters.
Selected readings
- "Commas matter, Oxford and otherwise" (4/17/22)
- "The new semiotics of punctuation" (11/7/12)
- "When commas are crucial to comprehension" (4/9/09)