From my minimal use of it I've seen one case of praise being translated to an insult[1] and one which was just hilariously funny.
[1]: For those who understand Norwegian: "gjere stas på en kunder" became "make fun of customers", i.e. the almost exact opposite.
"morgenstund har gull i munn" was translated to "early bird has gold in its mouth" which is just weird.
I was taught that "Mund" actually means "hand", meaning that you have better chance of success if you get up early in the morning.
The English version is "the early bird gets the worm."
I beg your pardon, but - how would you translate it instead? Edit: sorry, is it because of 'morgenstund' → 'early bird'? It should be illegitimate to go in that direction of metaphor - in fact, the engine probably thought that "morning time" is the metaphor and "early bird" the more direct reference -, nonetheless there is surely a definite link.
In the specific case, some will interpret "gold in mouth" as "the best time to be active", which is very different from "delightful". So, it is best to remain literal, in order to avoid the pollution of injecting prejudicial interpretations.
Reminds me of mixed idioms like "it´s as easy as falling of a piece of care" or "does the pope shit in the woods?" or "He’s burning the midnight oil from both ends".
It tries to be smart and just like a Google search for something unusual during the ten last years it sometimes works but most of the time fails in spectacular ways.
That's not very good Norwegian, is it? :)
I think "gjøre stas på" must be considered an idiom, and automatic translation services will always have problems with that. I'm fluent in both Norwegian and English, and I wouldn't know how to translate that expression.
As for how to translate it, I'd say almost anything would better.
More specifically, now that I've left the office (and cannot work on the train anyways because the Windows activated "Boil my laptop" once too many on my way out of the office it seems) I'd suggest that something like:
- celebrating the achievements of some customers
- throwing a party for some customers
or something to that effect
One of my favorites is the English idiom "make one's hair stand on end", which can be translated (directly) as "fikk ens hår til å stå opp", but we Norwegians prefers "gåsehud" (literally "goose skin") or "fikk hårene til å reise seg" (literally "made the hairs rise") instead.
Add to the problem if the scared or excited entity in question is actually called "One."
I rest my case.