Translators used the internet to prepare the Chinese version of the Prime Minister's Asian white paper.
Julia Gillard's office wants answers following suggestions that taxpayer-funded translators used the internet to prepare the Chinese version of the Prime Minister's Asian white paper.
One critic said it looked like the job was done using the Google Translate website.
Ms Gillard released the Australia in the Asian Century paper last month, urging schools and universities to embrace Asian language lessons.
But the Chinese (simplified) version of the paper contained broken sentences, grammar and syntax errors, inappropriate vocabulary and incomprehensible expressions, leading many to question how it was prepared. Some English words were translated without preserving the original meaning, regarded as an amateur mistake.
In the translation of the executive summary, the last line referring to a "highly skilled workforce" was translated into a word meaning "an army of labour".
A reference to "world-beating actions" became "only one in the world". And on page 18, a reference to pathways was translated to "leading peak"
One Chinese national studying in Australia, who asked not to be named, told The Sunday Telegraph: "It's kind of unbelievable. I was ready to cry when I read it. It just looked like they asked some random uni student to translate.
"It is reasonable to suspect that the person who translated this white paper relied heavily on Google Translate, not their Asian language skills."
"Upon a quick review of the Chinese version, it was found to be readable and understandable, although there was room for improvement, especially in the choice of word/terms," a spokesman from the Confucius Institute at the University of Western Australia said.
"In general, it is understandable. 'Simplified' refers to the version of Chinese characters versus traditional characters."
A spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the translation was done by a service accredited by the National Accreditation Authority for Translators and Interpreters.
"We have asked the translator to review the examples provided. If there are issues with any of the translations they will be fixed," the spokeswoman said.
(Read by Emily Cheng. Emily Cheng is a journalist at the China Daily Website.)
双语资讯
(Agencies)
近日，澳大利亚总理茱莉亚•吉拉德发布《亚洲世纪白皮书》，然而有人指出，
一位批评人士指出，中文版的
吉拉德上月发布了《亚洲世纪白皮书》，敦促中小学和大学开设中文语言课程。
但白皮书的简体中文版里出现了断句、语法和句法错误、用词不当和表达混乱等问题，因此很多人对
在内容提要中，最后一行提到“高技术劳动力”，
有一句原文是“震撼世界的举措”，中文版
一位不愿透露姓名的中国留学生对《星期日电讯报》说：“简直难以置信。看得我都要哭了。看起来他们是随便找了个大学生来
“我有理由怀疑，
西澳大学孔子学院的一名发言人说：“我大概看了一下白皮书的中文版，虽然存在改进的空间，特别是在选词措辞上面还有问题，但还是可以看懂的。”
“总体来看还是可以看懂的。”简体中文是对应繁体中文而言。
澳大利亚总理的一名女发言人表示，白皮书中文版
她说：“我们已经要求
Vocabulary:
uni: university，大学