Automated Translation Nightmares!
Some businesses, schools, and other organisations are using automated translations on their websites. While this may appear to be an easy option, it can turn out to be a nightmare… Here are some examples from one webpage we looked at recently.
The Chinese translation for 'Manaakitanga' comes out as '法力aki丁字裤' — the last three characters literally mean 'thong' (G-string). This is highly offensive and completely distorts the meaning of the Māori value.
The page title "Our School | Tō Tātou Kura" was translated as “我们的学校 | 东田堂学校”. "Tō Tātou Kura" is Māori for "Our School" — so it doesn't need to be translated into Chinese at all. However, machine translation has randomly transliterated it as "东田堂学校" (Dōng Tián Táng School), which is meaningless in Chinese and gives the false impression that this is a separate school with a different name.
“Our People" was translated as “我们的人民” — which literally means "our fellow citizens" and sounds political. The page is about school staff and leadership, so a better translation could be “教职员工”(teachers and staff) or “学校团队”(school team).