More dangers of relying on machine translation

Posted on July 22nd, 2008

Yesterday my friend forwarded me this post about the dangers of relying on machine translation.

Apparently some poor Chinese translator typed the Chinese characters for “restaurants” into an online translation tool and mistook the error message of the translation server being temporarily unavailable to be the translation of what he input! And this translation made it to a large public sign.

All the more reason to check your important translations with a native speaker, or contact me for help!

Tags: danger, machine translation, public, 公共空間, 危険性, 機械翻訳
Filed under Public Spaces, Restaurants | 1 Comment »

No dash on to a Train

Posted on July 3rd, 2008

This photo comes from the platform of the Seaside Line in Yokohama which I used last weekend to go to the Yokohama Bayside Marina to go sailing with a friend of mine. (It also goes to Hakkeijima Sea Paradise.

I find this sign a bit striking because it is located so close to Tokyo. Usually the more into the countryside one goes, the worse the English becomes, but in this case it’s near Tokyo and Yokohama.

The mistakes here of course are the use of the indefinite article (”a”) instead of the definite article (”the”), the capitalization of “Train”, and the space between “on to” - all admittedly difficult nuances since they don’t exist in Japanese. All the more reason to ask a native speaker such as myself to proofread your important English translation that will be seen by thousands of people!

Shock English: No dash on to a Train
Correct English: Don’t run onto the train; Don’t dash onto the train

Tags: information, public, Trains and Mass Transit|電車、交通機関
Filed under Public Spaces, Trains and Mass Transit | 1 Comment »