Taiwan Railway slammed for bad English translations

The mistakes were noticed by a netizen. Among its many mistakes, TRA translated Providence University (靜宜大學) into “quiet proper university,” and Tungs' Taichung MetroHarbor Hospital (童綜合醫院) into "a kid general hospital.”

Mew2, the netizen who discovered the mistake, suspects that the translations were probably obtained from a software program that translates the literal meaning of Chinese words into English.

Li Kung-hsu, the station manager, said that the station had outsourced the translation project to a company, and that the mistakes would be rectified immediately.

Mew2 said he noticed the mistakes when he traveled through Shalu Station, and simply found the mistakes “too much.”

“Foreigners coming to Taiwan should make sure they learn Chinese well, otherwise they won't be able to understand these translations!” he said.

Other mistakes on the travel guide include “a light farmland hospital” instead of Kuang Tien General Hospital (光田醫院), "Wu to stay harbor” for Wu Chi Taichung Harbor (梧棲台中港), and “Hong only section” for Hungkuang University (弘光科大).

Head of Hsuan Chuang University's Department of Foreign Languages and Literature said the translations reflected not only poor English, but also terrible Chinese skills.

Li, responding to the embarrassing hiccups, said that the station staff did not notice the mistakes because of their poor English skills, and promised that the mistakes would be corrected immediately.

Subscribe to The China Post and save 25%. Click here

SharePrintEmail

Write a Comment

Enter your comments - 3000 characters max

Type in image code

Submit

 Receive China Post promos Respond to this email