Google “Embarrassingly” Mistranslates Malaysian Government Website
Malaysia’s Defence Ministry is going manual in translating the contents of its website, following the farcical mistakes made by Google’s free translation service on the English version of its website.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmed Zahid Hamidi admitted that the inaccurate translation from Google Translate has caused much embarrassment to the ministry, reported Malaysia’s The Star. “We have corrected the mistakes and translations are no longer done that way. It is now done manually,” an article in The Star quoted the minister as saying.
The ministry was forced to take down its English translated website after it went viral of Twitter and Facebook. The report noted “amusing translations” of the staff dress code on the ministry’s official website.
The Star cited one instance where “pakaian yang menjolok mata,” which means revealing clothes in Bahasa Malaysia, was translated as “clothes that poke eye.” Another example was “collared shirts and tight Malay civet berbutang three,” translated from “berkolar baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga.”
Finally, The Star quoted Dr Zahid, who stated, “We did not intend for the English translations to turn out that way.”










16 May, 2012: Milton Fingerman dies at 90
9 May, 2012: Pinterest Seeks Translators Around the World to Translate its Interface
30 Apr, 2012: Google Translate Boasts 200m Users a Month