Translation Fail Shuts Down English Website for Osaka Subway - Creative Word

According to an article in ‘The Telegraph’ recently, Japanese translation officials in Osaka have had to shut down the foreign language website for the city’s subway system after some entertaining translation glitches went viral on social media sites.

The website in question offered English language users mistranslations of subway stops, and advertising campaigns, due to the use of an automated Microsoft translation programme which was launched last September.

The subway website mistranslations saw city stops being named “Before the Zoo”, “Three Eyes”, “Sakai Muscle” and “Prince Bridge Now City”.

While the poorly translated advertising campaigns included an announcement promoting a new TV commercial which stated “Osaka Metro TV uploaded footage of city is the new born. Please visit the can’t usually see pretty CM filming behind the scenes!”

Following all the social media attention on the strange translations, Osaka transport officials decided to take down the multilingual website until the translations are corrected.

Osaka, the third largest city in Japan, is preparing for international recognition due to playing host to the G20 summit in June, Rugby World Cup fixtures throughout September, and the start of direct flights by British Airways being launched next month (April).

Accessibility for international tourists was set to be improved by Osaka officials in a bid to make travel and tourism in the area easier and more manageable. However, the translation errors discovered on the subway website, would have been sure to have increased confusion among tourists, rather than lessen it, with stops labelled “Three Eyes” and “Before the Zoo”!

Public transport systems in Japan are known for their speed, efficiency, and cleanliness, however, English translation is obviously not their strong point.

But Japan aren’t the only country to fall foul of machine translation though, as you can see from the examples below:

1. Fiji – once again tourism authorities failed to check a machine translation with native speakers when creating a promotional video about the country. The resulting translation offered the word ‘toilet’ instead of ‘church’ or ‘place of worship’.

2. Britain – the British government, in a bid to speak directly to EU member states, published a white paper which they translated into 22 languages. The German version was littered with mistakes which included made up words, and complex, archaic language. It certainly hasn’t helped their case with Brexit!

3. USA – law enforcement officers in Kansas used Google Translate to request a car search of a suspect they had pulled over as he didn’t speak any English. The problem arose when it was discovered that they forgot to mention that he had the right to refuse the search, and that Google Translate offered the translation ‘can I find the car?’ instead of ‘can I search the car?’. Needless to say, the suspect was acquitted of all charges.

As you can see, machine translation still has a long way to go before it can match the accuracy and legitimacy of human translations.
If you are considering translating business documents, your website, promotional material, or other customer facing information, it is vital you use a professional translation company to ensure a truthful rendition of your message.