Aug 263 min read

What is Chicken Translate? - Turkish Translation Fails

Turkish memes are... interesting to say the least. If you’re a Turkish learner who dabbles in the Turkish side of Instagram, X (aka Twitter) or Reddit, you have probably heard/seen multiple memes you hadn't heard of before, including chicken translate. "What even is chicken translate?" you might've asked (and rightfully so). Let me explain.

What is Chicken Translate?

Chicken translate is a collective term for any humorous mistranslation from Turkish to English or vice versa (rare). It is often seen on restaurant menus, signs, billboards and, as of recently, social media. Over time, Turks have extended chicken translate to include intentional mistranslations as well. As always, let’s look at some examples:

Oh dear... Obviously, the symposium isn't for handjob educatoin (spelling?). El işi (lit. hand job) means handicraft (handcrafted decorative items) in English. What's more concerning than the mistranslation is that it is their 12th time doing this...

This one is even more of a mess. First off, you won't be served a skillet. Tavalar (lit. skillets) means stir fries in this context (they're made in a skillet, duh). Saç kavurma refers to a type of meat stir fry (not a roast). This mistranslation stems from the misspelling of sac (thin sheet metal, a skillet made of such material) as saç (hair). Et sote (sauted meat) took even me a while to figure out. Et can also be interpreted as the imperative of etmek (to do), which was translated as be! (and not do! for some reason?).

OK, what the frick? Soap is a bit concerning, but you can probably tell it's meant to be soup. But sensitive meatball is a different story. İçli can either mean stuffed (lit. with stuffing) or emotional. I wonder what emotional meatballs would taste like...

Origin of Chicken Translate

Chicken translate is one of the oldest memes of Turkish media - it can be traced back to this image from the year 2000:

chicken translate - origin — Origin of the "Chicken Translate" term.

This ancient picture marks the beginning of the Cihıchen translate (spelling?) era. Jokes aside, Kömürde piliç çevirme means rotiserrie chicken on a coal grill. Now, how does rotiserrie chicken become chicken translate? It's simple - çevirmek means to rotate, to turn, and to translate.

Modern Chicken Translate

Chicken translate isn't only accidental anymore - the meme has resurfaced multiple times on social media in different forms. Sometimes it's used to make fun of someone's English, other times it's used to make fun of spelling or grammar mistakes:

Ankara is my uncle and i am happy stop is a Turkish meme which stems from the chicken translation of Ankara dayımdır ve mutluyum dur. This, in return, is a misspelling of Ankara'dayımdır ve mutluyumdur (I'm in Ankara and I'm happy).

XYZ university is a new addition to the chicken translate meme, where users make fun of Turks who have mistranslated the name of their university in their profile bio. The two universities referred to in the picture above are Ondokuz Mayıs Üniversitesi and Bilgi Üniversitesi. Here are more examples:

Yıldız Teknik Üniversitesi

Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi

Yıldırım Beyazıt Üniversitesi

Bayburt Üniversitesi

Chicken Translate Gallery

Finally, here is a gallery of chicken translate:

Depresyondayım (I'm depressed) - Depresyon dayım (Depression is my uncle)

Yaş (age) - Yaş (moist)

Ekler (Éclair) - Ekler (suffixes/adds)

İskender is a dish but also an adaptation of Alexander, a men's name. Eti bol means "with extra meat". Karışık is mixed, but also confusing. Döner is not only a dish, it also means rotating.