Being a player on the world stage means being able to communicate effectively and fluently in a language that your audience understands. Taiwan’s politicians and businesses continue to fall far short in this regard, despite their lofty goals.
Politicians endlessly proclaim their ambition to turn Taiwan into a major presence in the fields of technology, finance, design, culture and tourism. They unveil slogans, logos and mascots and hold press conferences. They are usually fine when they stick to Mandarin. The trouble begins when another language is involved.
We’re not talking about the millions of dollars and thousands of man-hours spent on the endless debate over what Romanization system to use in Taiwan. All that has given us is a mish-mash of signage within cities and around the nation. If politicians think the outside world has trouble finding Taiwan on a map, they rarely spare a thought for foreigners who actually make it here — unless you remember the ill-conceived and poorly executed plan back in 2000 to give number nicknames to major Taipei thoroughfares.
We’re talking about holding briefings and producing materials for foreign media, international companies and visitors. Taipei Mayor Hau Lung-bin (郝龍斌) was the latest politician to fall foul of language, on a visit to Tokyo this week to promote the Flora Expo. Hau’s extolling of Taipei’s attractions was apparently lost on most of his audience because the translator wasn’t up to the job. Hau shrugged off the problem as translator nerves — and blamed the airline that reportedly chose the translator.
To be fair, it was not a diplomatic gaffe on the level of former US president Jimmy Carter’s translator on a state visit to Poland in December 1977 who translated “wanting to learn about the Polish people’s desires for the future” into wanting to learn about their carnal lusts.
In both Carter and Hau’s case the error lay in using a freelancer. The US State Department had hired a freelance linguist who was a respected translator of written Polish, but not trained in simultaneous translation. In Tokyo, Hau was given a Taiwanese student who is studying in Japan for a doctorate.
In Hau’s case, however, it’s not just a one-off mistake. Both the Taipei City government and the central government have spent a lot of money promoting the Flora Expo, but not enough trickled down to the translation level as even a quick scroll though the expo’s English-language Web site shows. While none of the errors are howlers, there are plenty of simple grammatical errors and poor word choices that could have been easily caught. To cite just three examples: “The newly built exposition hall is a new and the completed expo site will have 14 pavilions in total;” Welcome all worldwide and local media gather around to pick up interesting stories from “2010 Taipei Int’l Flora Expo;” and “A diversified shopping will feature Expo souvenirs and a snack court.”
The flora expo is only the latest example of the city government’s inattention to foreign grammatical details. Last year, Taipei’s MRT system featured billboards at several stations that showed a smiling Hau, several tourist attractions and the English words: “Taipei Glare.” The Chinese text extolled the delights of the city. What Taipei was glaring about was not mentioned.
If private businesses make such mistakes on their packaging or materials, that is their problem and they pay the price for such carelessness. When Hau and other politicians spend taxpayer money, it’s everyone’s problem and it’s the nation that suffers.
Taiwan’s universities have institutes that specialize in training translators, including National Taiwan Normal University and Fu Ren Catholic University. If taxpayer money is being spent, we should be able to demand that it is spent on professional translators and ensure that it is the message that makes the headlines, not the mistakes.
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