政府の公式文書が機械翻訳されて大炎上

翻訳者のあいだで最近話題になってるネタがこれ。

Chinese version of Julia Gillard's Australia in the Asian Century paper was poorly translated

In the translation of the executive summary, the last line referring to a "highly skilled workforce" was translated into a word meaning "an army of labour".

A reference to "world-beating actions" became "only one in the world". And on page 18, a reference to pathways was translated to "leading peak", but the translation also referred to a famous mountain in Hunan province.

One Chinese national studying in Australia, who asked not to be named, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's kind of unbelievable. I was ready to cry when I read it. It just looked like they asked some random uni student to translate.

"It is reasonable to suspect that the person who translated this white paper relied heavily on Google Translate, not their Asian language skills."

まあ早い話が、ギラード豪首相が発行人のホワイトペーパーが機械翻訳されて意味がおかしくなったと。政府の公式文書が堂々と機械翻訳される時代がついにきたかという感じです。まあ結果は想定内ですが。

そして一部では負け惜しみなのか、苦しい弁解なのか、よくわからないコメントが…

The Confucius Institute at the University of Western Australia was more diplomatic.

"Upon a quick review of the Chinese version, it was found to be readable and understandable, although there was room for improvement, especially in the choice of word/terms," a spokesman said.

 いやいやいや、どう考えても誤訳でしょう（笑）。

さて、さらに問題なのが、これを翻訳した業者（翻訳者？）がNAATI認定を受けていること。ただでさえ業界内ではあまり評判が高くないNAATIなのですが、これでさらに信頼ガタ落ちですね・・・

A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the translation was done by a service accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.

ちなみにシドニーで来月開催されるJubilaTIon 25に参加します。地元オーストラリアですので、このショッキングな出来事についても追求されることでしょう。