Translation Laughs Are Not so Funny
Saturday, January 23rd, 2010When a Swansea council official needed a road sign to be translated from English to Welsh recently, he utilised an online translation agency. Not being fluent in Welsh the official mistook the email response that was received as being the translation, when in fact it was an out of office reply from the translation company. The official then proceeded with the text and had the sign made.Often Welsh translations are organised by folks who are not Welsh tongued and have little understanding of the language. Most signs need to be translated from English to Welsh and vice versa. Dylan Iorwerth, Editor of a Welsh based language publication, who is fluent in the language himself said that they need to use people who speak both languages.The error was only picked up when pictures of the erroneous sign started circulating on the Internet. What should have read “No entry for heavy goods vehicles. Residential site only” now read as, “I am not in the office at the moment. Send any work to be translated”. Iorwerth from Golwg magazine said, “(The pictures) are circulating among Welsh speakers because, unfortunately, it’s all too common that things are not just badly translated, but are put together by people who have no idea about the language”. He added, “It’s good to see people trying to translate (Welsh) but they should really ask for expert help”.In the early 90’s, following a large revitalisation of the language, Welsh became mandatory for all school children in the land. Unfortunately, the signs are all too plain for Welsh-speaking nationals, that umteen residents are not yet able to translate to Welsh. One such sign includes a sign which told English pedestrians in Swansea to ‘Look Right’ while Welsh pedestrians were told to ‘Look Left’. Another Welsh translation for cyclists near Penarth confusingly told them that they had problems with an inflamed bladder. Hopefully the same mistakes aren’t taking place for legal translations as that may cause a slightly more serious consequence. Legal translations should be done with due care by qualified and responsible legal translation agency. Londons’ BBC correspondent said that this is not the only Welsh translation sign mishap: it is just the most recent in a series of similar incidents.

