Mindef’s website translation howlers

On 7th January 2012, The Star wrote "Melta: Language mistakes on Mindef website inexcusable"

On 10th January 2012, The Malay Mail quoted ''The Defence Ministry (Mindef) is blaming Google Translate for the gaffe on its website’s English version of the staff dress code".

Interestingly, On that same day, a blogger wrote "Mindef, Stop Poking Others' Eyes"

I wonder what has actually happened.

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THE STAR Saturday January 7, 2012

Melta: Language mistakes on Mindef website inexcusable

PETALING JAYA: The Defence Ministry's English Language mistakes on its website is inexcusable, said Malaysian English Language Teaching Association (Melta) president Dr S. Ganakumaran.

“If these sort of mistakes happen with ordinary people, it is still excusable, but if large institutions make such mistakes, it becomes a big problem because they should be the ones setting the standard. If such mistakes are present, what can we expect from the rest of the country?” he asked.

He said if the ministry had chosen to use English as a part of their website, they have the responsibility of ensuring that it is done correctly.

Parent Action Group for Education Malaysia (PAGE) chairman Datin Noor Azimah Abdul Rahim said such mistakes were absolutely inexcusable, especially because it was from a government website.

“This mistake gives a very bad impression and image of the Government. They have improved in many ways, but little things like these overshadow them,” she said.

National Translation Institute of Malaysia managing director Mohd Khair Ngadiron said there was still no perfect replacement for a professional translator's work.

“More often than not, machines tend to translate work literally, and even if we use Google to translate, we must still look at the context,” he said.He said anyone setting up a website should get a professional body to do its translation because the site would be viewed by many globally.

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Mindef’s website translation howlers

IKRAM ISMAIL

THE MALAY MAIL Tuesday, January 10th, 2012 11:43:00

AHMAD ZAHID: Points finger at Google for embarrassing translation bloopers

RAWANG: The Defence Ministry (Mindef) is blaming Google Translate for the gaffe on its website’s English version of the staff dress code.

Its minister, Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said the blunder was nothing short of “embarrassing”.

“It was embarrassing for us, what with the grammatical errors and language,” he said.

Ahmad Zahid said the Mindef website maintenance was linked to Google Translate, which automatically translated all Bahasa Malaysia text to English.

However, not all these translations were grammatically correct. Some lead to hilarious phrases.

“We have stopped the automatic site link with Google Translate. We are now translating all items manually,” he said at a press conference after visiting the National Service Programme’s (PLKN) Templer Park camp yesterday.

The howler was discovered by bloggers before it went viral on social networking sites on Jan 5, prompting hundreds of tongue-in-cheek comments within hours.

A blogger, in a post, wryly noted: “If Mindef meant to destroy our enemies by making them laugh till their sides split, congrats, they have succeeded.”

By late afternoon that day, the web administrator responded by taking down the affected pages and posting a statement promising to make the necessary corrections.

Some Facebook users had suggested the ministry stick to Bahasa Malaysia instead of making errors.

One of the bloopers involved the advice that male staff should put on “collared shirts and tight Malay civet berbutang three” (Berkolar baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga).

Another recommended “long-sleeve batik shirt with collar/mongoose fight made in Malaysia” (Baju batik lengan panjang berkolar/cekak musang buatan Malaysia).

Yet another suggested “Malay dress clothes and bersongkok bersamping dark” (Pakaian baju Melayu dan bersongkok bersamping gelap).

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Mindef, Stop Poking Others' Eyes

Tuesday, January 10, 2012

When I entered the office this morning and upon reading up the online newspaper, I bumped into one shocking news entitled "Mindef blames Google Translate for 'poke-eye' blunder" (P.Aruna, The Star Online, 10th Jan 2012). The article reports that Mindef (Ministry of Defence) has all this while relied on the free online translator service, Google Translate, to provide Malay to English translation for its English version website content. I just can't imagine how a government agency's website such as Mindef's can fully rely on a free service like Google Translate. As we all know, Google is no way a Malaysian company and so their products. Knowing this alone, can we expect them to know precisely what a Malay language sentence could mean in English? Most of the time it will be poorly translated to English language as the translator algorithms were developed in some ways to provide direct conversion for any Malay word in the search phrase.

The tests

To check on what Mindef has claimed, I opened up Google Translate and typed in "pakaian menjolok mata" into the textbox and by choosing the translate option of Malay to English, I can see the English translation on the right-hand side of the screen.

I was hoping for a funny phrase like "clothes that poke eye" but instead it gave me "dress scantily" which I think was a good translation even though it was not accurate enough. I have no idea what Malay phrase to enter to get me that "clothes that poke eye" as an answer or maybe the guy who did this just wanted to show his sense of humour by 'poking' someone's eye?

I checked another translation found in the newspaper report which reads "baju berkolar dan baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga" and Google Translate gave me a crappy answer "shirts with collar and button shirts Malay civet tight three".

In this case, the guy at Mindef shouldn't have followed the translated sentence since it is too obvious. Does someone there have any time to review or double-check whatever content they put on the web for public viewing?

For the third phrase from their website that said to be jumbled up is found in the background information of the Malaysian Defence Forces. The Malay version reads as "selepas pengunduran tentera British, Kerajaan Malaysia mengambil langkah drastik untuk meningkatkan tahap keselamatan negara dari sebarang ancaman". Google Translate-d the phrase and gives me "after the withdrawal of British troops, the Malaysian Government to take drastic measures to improve the security of the country from any threat", which is very comprehensible.

If this is the case, how can Mindef came out with different and confusing sentence like "after the withdrawal of British army, the Malaysian Government take drastic measures to increase the level of any national security threat"? Weird, isn't it?

The blame game

Based on these findings, I think it's not wise for Mindef to blame others on your own mistakes and negligence. I also think Mindef failed to allocate resources to do manual translation from Malay to English before this and they took shortcut and use Google Translate or any other translation applications available on the web. It's harmless to use such translator services but using them without thinking could cause funny but embarassing sounds which later earn you harsh remarks from readers.

Having said that, all humans make mistakes and those mistakes can be corrected in some ways. Mindef has took down the English version of their website and corrective action is currently being taken to ensure more accurate translation can be provided to their portal visitors.