Lost in Translation.

Prologue: The awkward silence of my mailbox is a tadbit too unnerving especially with deadline approaching second by second. The anxiety is killing me!

While scholars of translation would argue vociferously about the merit of a translation (In the world of translation, the adjective "good" or "bad" are relative.) whether one subscribe to Nida's Formal/Dynamic Equivalence or Newmark's Semantic/Commucative Approaches or Reiss's Skopostheorie/Functionalist Approach, I however,  believe any reasonable person (especially those who have sufficient fluency in Chinese language), scholars or laymen, will have no problem pointing out the translation below FAILED. AT ALL LEVELS.

I could not brain this. Source.

Unedited Google Translate FAIL strikes again! While most of us usually would just take Google Translate FAIL in our daily life as a lighthearted moment of the day, this particular FAIL which happened on the official welcoming ceremony for Premier of China, Wen Jia Bao's official visit to Malaysia at Putrajaya is just downright unfathomable. So many questions can be raised about this diplomatic fiasco. Who actually approved this Google Translation FAIL? Why no one actually QCed it before it was put up? Why did no one realised that this is a FAIL until the actual event itself? Prime Minister's Office and Ministry of Foreign Affairs have thousands of employee and none of them are actually proficient enough in Chinese language to spot the fail? Do they deal with PR people from Chinese Embassy and/or Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs before Premier Wen's arrival? Obviously this fiasco will not end well and I have a feeling that the Mainland Chinese Media and Netizen while have a field day ridiculing this Malaysian Google Translation FAIL while Prime Minister's Office is still proudly showing it on its release.

PMO's Press Release. I think Premier Wen is trying to stifle his laughter while people who is fluent in Chinese language died on the inside.

Lesson of the day: Always hire a translator, a human one instead of relying on Google Translate or any form of MT/CAT (even though one have zero knowledge in the target language thus assuming everything Google is correct) to create a reasonable translation. Don't wait until disaster happens. While we have hundreds of translators out with their talent ready to be tapped (and we are very anxious about it), what we had instead was...THIS. *throw hand in exasperation* Instead of  热烈欢迎温家宝总理莅临马来西亚 (Warm Welcome for Premier Wen Jia Bao's Visit to Malaysia) which is simple enough but makes sense besides meeting its function, we get 正式欢迎仪式, 与他一起温家宝阁下的正式访问马来西亚.

I think double facepalm doesn't cut it too. A collective MILLION facepalms are more like it.

All government ministry especially key ministry like Foreign Ministry/Diplomatic Mission or Prime Minister's Office need to hire more translators or at least linguistically sensitive multilingual staffs. I could use a civil service job too once I graduated from postgrad. Please remember me, JPA! I am those rare people that wanted to be bonded to civil service so please hire me! *wave hand*


Epilogue: I am thinking...of going to Penang Hill to ride the new Penang Hill Train as well as making the long delayed sight seeing trip there. 3 years of my undergrad life and I've never stepped on Penang Hill! Meanwhile, still feeling anxious about reality. Conference paper! Proposal presentation! What more do I miss?