The hallmark of good translation is it doesn’t get you in trouble.

When it comes to Translation, good intentions just don’t cut the mustard. Good translation combined with good quality assurance is the only way to ensure that your company is getting the translation it needs and that stakeholders deserve. Otherwise, your translation may end up costing you more than you think.

Let’s take a closer look at what not to do with our latest installment highlighting translation fails from around the world. Here are three recent examples of translation that didn’t make the grade – and three companies that should have used Responsive Translation instead.

Fiji Tourism Board Confuses Church with Bathroom

Tourism Fiji, the island country’s tourism board, created a promotional video to help equip tourists with a few iTaukei words for their trips to Fiji. However, the video caused consternation among Fijians when an image intending to show the words for a “place of worship” used the words for “toilet” instead. After a drubbing on social media, Tourism Fiji quickly apologized and removed the offending video.

High-Profile Fail for AI-Powered Translation

This year the Boao Forum for Asia, nicknamed Asia’s Davos, witnessed a spectacular fail from Tencent Holdings’ simultaneous translation system, powered by artificial intelligence. The system was supposed to supply simultaneous interpretation and transcripts during the event. However, it produced a combination of gibberish and error-riddled speech instead. This very public showing prompted Tencent to put out a statement recognizing the blunders but also highlighting that their system “is still learning and growing.”

Official Shenzhen Court Signs Make No Sense

Recent visitors to the Shenzhen Longgang District People’s Court in China’s Guangdong province had reason to be confused, as the departmental signs were plagued by mistranslations and omissions. For example, the “fast-track ruling area” similar to a small claims court was deemed the “speed cutting area” and the administrative tribunal featured incorrect Pinyin (Romanization of Chinese characters) and no English translation at all. After being roasted on social media and in internet chat rooms, the court quickly moved to correct the issue.

Translation Done Right the First Time

Responsive Translation has been providing quality translation, interpreting and other foreign-language services to organizations around the world for more than 20 years. Certified for ISO 9001 and working in more than 200 languages and dialects every day, Responsive Translation takes nothing more seriously than quality assurance.

To find out more about our services and how we can help you, please get in touch at 212-818-1102 ext 208 or [email protected].