民進黨立委陳瑩昨日指出，由台灣史前文化博物館所出版的「跨越與連結－臺灣與南島文化」一書中部分英文翻譯嚴重錯誤，有侮辱原住民之嫌。（記者王敏為攝）〔記者林曉雲、黃明堂、趙靜瑜／綜合報導〕原住民的紋面是成年的標誌，有肯定、尊敬的正面意義，但由國立台灣史前文化博物館出版的「跨越與連結｜台灣與南島文化」一書，英文說明卻把成年（adulthood）錯譯成adultery（通姦），導致外國人誤認紋面是通姦的標誌；立委陳瑩、卑南族長老陳冠年及英文教授張武昌直批「太離譜」！

It is the often-told story of a translation gone bad — a poorly executed Chinese-to-English translation at that. In this case, Taiwan’s indigenous peoples are claiming damage to their cultural dignity and demanding that the offending translated book be recalled immediately.

After a bit of sleuthing (seems that the translation in question has been removed from the government site), I tracked down the following bit using Google’s cache version of previously indexed pages contain a small part of the translation:

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手所做LIMA hands

南島語中LIMA（或RIMA）代表著「手」，也是數字5的意義。Danee Hazama先生在部落的田野調查中，發現樂天知命的原住民無論是食、衣、住、行、娛樂這五個生活層面，都需藉由靈活的手，製作出所需的豐富物件。用勤奮的雙手編織著豐美的織紋與提籃，用厚實的雙手與天地博鬥，是驍勇的獵人以及大海的冒險家。

In the language of Autronesian peoples, “LIMA” or “RIMA” means “hands”. It also means “5”. In the field research, Mr. Danee Hazama found that being contated with life indigenous peoples in Taiwan used their hands to make the things they need in their daily lives. They use their hand to braid baskets with beautiful patterns and to fight with nature. They are brave hunters and adventurers fighting with oceans.

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The Liberty Times article points out outrageously incorrect word choice as the main problem with the translation. If the above sample is representative, however, the problems with the translation are greater than that. First, the translation does not fully communicate the source Chinese text, but is an abbreviated interpretation that has lost much of the original Chinese nuances. Second, the English semantic structure follows that of the Chinese too closely, rendering a noticeably non-native style. And third, the translation does not flow logically because of missing connectives. Basically, the translation seems to have been translated by a non-native English speaker who did not have the linguistic skills required to produce a full, semantically correct and culturally appropriate English translation.

The lesson to be learned here is that the same level of care needs to be given to producing the translation as that of the original content, especially for print publication projects. More precisely, this can be achieved in the following way:

Establish translation goals, standards and project glossaries before work begins. A seasoned translation project manager with translation experience is key to identifying such requirements and making sure the translation team meets them.

Engage qualified translation professionals and domain experts: Translation is best done by qualified teams. Pristine would engage 1) an experienced translator with native-level proficiency in the target language and familiarity with the subject matter; 2) an area expert who has native-level proficiency in the source language to comment (not edit!) the translation; 3) a senior translation editor (a native English speaker with proven editorial skill) to closely check the translation for accuracy and make necessary revisions as well as to polish the final text for readability and style.

I initially assumed it was because a new sign was being installed or some minor construction up on one of the floors above.

After a week of not seeing any such activity I asked the doorman what was up.

He said small pieces of the building were falling on that spot and until it was fixed the sidewalk would continued to be blocked, adding that the cost of repairing the entire frontside would be around 500,000NT (about $US14,400) and it was unlikely the tenants would be willing to spend that kind of money collectively any time soon.

Two weeks go by, and a few doors down I noticed a fresh pile of rubble on the sidewalk. It took a minute for me to realize this was evidence of another vintage building like ours was crumbling.

This, though, was much worse fallout. Had someone been walking there they would’ve been serious injured or killed.

The bank which occupies that building put up a yellow tape barricade which was in place until a day or two ago. The rubble was removed, tape discarded, but no sign of any repair.

Likely it is the vibrations from the constant stream of buses which is helping accelerate the process of disintegration. I tend to look up a bit more now when walking around.

And although I don’t doubt that more than a few adventurous and enterprising people would love to satisfy these needs, setting up and doing business in Taiwan is no cakewalk for your average laowai.

I will be posting over the next few weeks on the strange world of meeting RDEC web and bilingual communication standards (and gov’t web projects in general). For those who have attempted to glean useful information on government websites or use their online services, after reading my posts you should have better understanding of why things are the way they are. And, the good news is, yes things seem to be getting better, but still a far cry from the level of competence demonstrated in the field of IT hardware.

[snip]

“Don’t ask foreigners their age, marital status, income, past experience, address, personal life, religious beliefs or political beliefs, it says.”

By “personal life” we assume that they mean “sex”. I wonder what people in China (or Taiwan) for that matter, think of such advice. Could be along the lines of “What do you talk about then?”

This is the more reasonable advice. For the lowdown on what and what not to wear, say, and do, read it online here:

http://www.salon.com/wires/ap/world/2008/07/31/D928NHPO0_oly_china_etiquette/index.html

-from the Wikipedia