Working to spot mistranslations

HUNGRY Ghost Festival was mistranslated as “Hungary Ghost Festival” in a 2002 Singapore Tourism Board guide. This translation gaffe has stuck in Neo Keng Hwee’s mind, so he was quick to respond to a nationwide effort to crowdsource expertise to prevent such errors.

Following the launch of the Citizen Translators project in January, Neo has given feedback on errors he has spotted in brochures.

“Errors in translation are often made because the Chinese language has many homonyms (words that sound similar but have different meanings),” Neo, 39, a Ngee Ann Polytechnic lecturer in Chinese studies, told The Straits Times.

For another citizen translator, Sharmelee Selvaraji, the need for accurately translated materials hit home when the pandemic worsened in Singapore.

In April last year, the PhD student studying neuroscience at the National University of Singapore joined an informal chat group to translate Covid-19-related information to Tamil.

“People from the private and public sectors were messaging us for help to translate materials literally every day,” said Sharmelee, 26.

These translations were very important because some of them were used to inform migrant workers about the Covid-19 symptoms that they needed to report, she added.

Nearly 800 people – from secondary school students to seniors – have pitched in on a national initiative to improve the translation of government communication materials.

Through the Citizen Translators project, they can flag errors and provide suggestions to refine translations.

In July, they gave more than 600 pieces of feedback about the TraceTogether token collection website that were forwarded to the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office, said Minister of State for Communications and Information Tan Kiat How at a virtual dialogue on Wednesday.

A recognition and training framework for the initiative was also announced by Tan, who is chairman of the National Translation Committee.

The two-tier framework promotes more frequent involvement by recognising the citizen translators based on their level of contribution, said the Ministry of Communications and Information (MCI).

From next year, those involved in at least five translation-related activities for the year will get e-vouchers under the enhanced tier.By March next year, all citizen translators will get to vet and proofread communication materials using the SG Translate Together Web portal.

They will take a shot at refining text from translation engine SG Translate, developed by the authorities to produce first-cut efforts.

Currently, citizen translators comprise about 660 Chinese speakers, around 60 Malay and about 50 Tamil.

So far, they have been involved in a pilot project with the People’s Association to review translations of materials such as posters at Kampong Chai Chee in Bedok and Kreta Ayer-Kim Seng in Chinatown. — The Straits Times/ANN