I've always said that Chinese and English do NOT translate well. They are structurally very different so it's hard to literally change words back and forth. Chinese can also have confusing and complicated combinations of sounds and words that mean totally different things when combined as such.
The funniest translations us American teachers have come across thus far though, are the names of animals. Most often, animals have two chinese characters or sounds to their name. When you literally translate them, it can be hilarious! Here are some of my favorites: giraffe translates to "long-neck deer"and turkey translates to "fire chicken." These definitely make sense to me, I can see where they came from.
A new one I learned today is a little less obvious: penguin literally translates to "Industrious Goose." I can't imagine how that came to be, but I like it anyway!
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