Bad app translation made my friend think his money disappeared

Well... to start with... I work at a bank abroad, and a funny (but kinda embarassing) thing happened recently that taught us a real lesson about translations.

Our bank rolled out a new app in multiple languages. A friend of mine had just moved here, downloaded the app in our native language, and a few minutes later calls me freaking out because he “lost” his money.

I told him to come by so I could help. Turns out… the translation was terrible. I have no idea what tool they used, but one of the screens basically said something like “money goes there and there”. No wonder he was confused.

It was funny after the fact, but also a wake-up call. Now we only use professional translation for app content, because bad translations don’t just look sloppy, they can actually freak out people.

Moral of the story: if you’re launching an app in multiple languages, don’t cheap out on translations. It matters way more than you think.