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Friday November 9, 2007

Israelis’ questions completely lost in translation

Last week the Dutch Foreign Ministry received a puzzling email from a delegation of Israeli journalists who were scheduled to arrive in Amsterdam next week for an educational seminar on the Dutch political system.

The e-mail began, “Helloh bud, Enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The mother your visit in Israel is a sleep to the favor or to the bed your mind on the conflict are Israeli Palestinian, and on relational Israel Holland.” It continued with five nearly incomprehensible questions, and several other mentions of “mother.”

“How could this e-mail possibly have been sent? These journalists have sparked a major, major incident,” an official from Israel’s Foreign Ministry said. “Sure he can’t understand many of the questions, because the English is so bad. But he is being asked about the sleeping arrangements of his mother!”

The Foreign Ministry contacted the journalists who sent the email, and discovered that www.babelfish.com, an automated online translation tool, was at the root of the problem.

The journalist who had arranged the trip and conducted the previous communication was away on reserve duty when the Dutch Consulate requested a preview of the questions that the journalists intended to ask. Another journalist involved in the trip took it upon himself to send the questions, and — in lieu of working knowledge of English — relied on Babelfish. Typing in his Hebrew questions, he copied the automatic translations into an email and sent it to the Dutch Foreign Ministry.

A question meant to read, “What, in your opinion, needs to be done regarding the Iranian threat to Israel?” became, “What in your opinion needs to do opposite the awful the Iranian of Israel?”

The Dutch Foreign Ministry is considering canceling the entire trip and filling a formal complaint over the incident. The journalists, meanwhile, said that they were currently too embarrassed to continue with the planned visit. — jps

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