Theresa May’s Translation Blunder in Brussels - Creative Word

German-speaking officials in Brussels have mocked Theresa May’s government after a sub-standard translation of the new Brexit white paper was translated into other languages.

According to The Independent, the attempt at providing translations of May’s Brexit plan, sent directly to member states, was seen as a bid to bypass negotiations with the European Commission.

However, the move seems to have back-fired on May after claims that the translation was unreadable, archaic, and featured made-up compound words. Even the headline of the white paper on the government’s official website contained a grammatical error, claiming the paper was written in “Deutsche” instead of the correct spelling omitting the letter “e”.

When asked about the erroneous translation one native-speaking German EU official said “To be honest I haven’t seen it. I have worked with the English translation so far and while my English isn’t perfect, the questions I would have are not related to language problems and more related to content.”

While another told the Independent that the white paper contained language that was “old school to the max” making Brexit sound “very mythical” due to the “archaic and needlessly complex” language.

They said that the translation was “…written really weirdly. It reminds me of Old German texts”.

The translation received ridicule on social media sites, branding the “Weisspaper” as “awful to read” and “not German”. “It was translated by someone who learned German in school to a decent level but who never really spoke it, and who is also not a professional translator” said Twitter user Oscar D Torson.

The UK government’s linguistic skills have long been an area for debate; May’s refusal to conduct discussions in French with Michel Barnier, the former French Foreign minister running the talks for the EU commission was highlighted in October 2016, and in 2015, Sir Tony Brenton, a former British ambassador to Moscow, told an inquiry that Britain had been left in the dark during the Ukraine crisis because the Foreign Office lacked enough Russian speakers to understand evidence about the situation.

In a separate inquiry, the House of Commons foreign affairs committee warned that just 38 per cent of “speaker slots” at the Foreign Office were filled by someone who could speak the language to the specified level.

Further government cuts would “probably” mean a significant reduction in Britain’s world influence and a scaling back of its foreign policy ambitions, they concluded.

The failure of May’s government to hire a professional translation team was likely to be a costly mistake, leading to misunderstanding and animosity between nations. It certainly made the UK government seem indifferent to an effective Brexit plan.