Google services are efficient and have been useful to many people all over the world. But it seems, of late, the services are being taken up negatively. Recently, a France insurance company sued Google for its AutoComplete option and now its the Malaysian Defense Ministry, which has shown regrets on using Google Translate.
The Defense Ministry was attempting to come up with an English version of its official website, with the help of the free online Google Translate. But to their surprise, it resulted in the many mistakes found on the site.
Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said recently, “We have corrected the mistakes and translations are no longer done that way.” He firmed his statement adding, “It is now done manually.”He regretted admitting that the inaccurate translations, provided by the Google product, had caused much embarrassment to the ministry.
The same was noted, when The Star, an English-language, tabloid-format newspaper in Malaysia, posted an article wherein it was noted that the amusing translations of the staff dress code on the ministry’s official website were being shared everywhere on social networking websites.
An example or two for the same as as noted below:
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The ministry’s website had published translations such as “clothes that poke the eye”, a literal translation of pakaian yang menjolok mata, which in actual fact means revealing clothes in Bahasa Malaysia. This was in regards to the females
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Another one was “collared shirts and tight Malay civet berbutang three”, which, in Malay, is berkolar baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga. This was in regards to the males.
That was not all. There was a bigger blunder, which is still making rounds on the social networks. This was in regards to the ministry’s history, posted on the website, which read, “After the withdrawal of British army, the Malaysian Government take drastic measures to increase the level of any national security threat”.
The ministry was quick to react, but still the English translated version of the website was on for a few several hours, but it was already viral on Facebook and Twitter.
Dr Zahid was still apologetic, when he made a visit to the National Service camp. He said, “We did not intend for the English translations to turn out that way.”
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images :A Malaysian Defence Ministry staff member, wearing a traditional outfit, inspects a command vehicle on display at a conference in Kuala Lumpur
Agence France-Presse/Getty Images :A Malaysian Defence Ministry staff member, wearing a traditional outfit, inspects a command vehicle on display at a conference in Kuala Lumpur
A ministry spokesperson came up to respond immediately after the blunder and he said that a clarification had been posted on the website. He added that the corrective action was being taken to ensure that the translations were accurate. But if one checks the website, they would note that the English translations were still unavailable.
Last week, TechCentral had sat down with Google Translate research scientist Ashish Venugopal at Google’s headquarters in Silicon Valley for a brief discussion related to Google Translate. One can have a look at the complete Q&A set, here.