委员：莫让“神翻译”逍遥“法”外

The government has been urged to standardize the translation of public signs and notices, Xinhua reported on Wednesday.

据新华社11日报道，政府正大力推进路牌、公示语翻译的规范化。

CPPCC member Tang Jin, a national political adviser from central Hubei province, said as the country increasingly interacts with the international community, the problem of badly translated signs becomes of mounting importance.

出席两会的湖北省政协委员唐瑾表示，在中国国际影响力日益提升的今天，公示语翻译的重要性也日益凸显。

She said awkward and incorrect translations are common in many areas across the country.

她表示误译和劣译的问题在全国多地普遍存在。

Tang gave examples she has seen while traveling around the country. A reception desk, or zong tai in Chinese, was wrongly translated as "total desk" and exit, or chu kou in Chinese, was incorrectly translated as "export".

唐瑾举了一些她在国内旅行时遇到的例子：汉语中的“总台”（接待处）被错译成“total desk（整台）”；“出口”则被译为 "export"（贸易出口）。

She said correct translation is a sign of a nation's cultural capability and the problem should be taken seriously at government level.

唐瑾表示，正确的翻译体现了一个国家的文化素质，有必要引起政府层面的重视。

Tang suggested that government departments offer financial and personnel support to create a standard manual of public sign translations and promote it across the country.

唐瑾建议政府部门牵头投入人力和资金，编纂一本公示语标准手册，在全国推广。

China has already learnt costly lessons from the casual use of English.

中国已经为“乱用英语”付出了高昂的代价。

Beyond confusing public directories, and hilarious - or sickening - renditions of restaurant menus, the lack of accuracy in business documents has become the latest stumbling block to the sale of China's high-speed trains, something the country is most proud of and eager to sell around the world.

除了让人不明所以的公共目录，和让人恶心又想笑的餐馆菜单，最近一份有失精准的商业文件，将中国一项高铁交易“搅黄”了。而高铁是中国最骄傲、最热切想要推向国际的项目。

Zhang Minyu, vice-general manager of overseas market with CSR Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive Co., told China Economic Weekly late last year that the company was once "one step away from winning a bid in north Europe in 2017" but finally lost the contract due to an error in translation of the construction plan.

南车株机分管海外市场的副总经理张旻宇在接受《中国经济周刊》采访时提到，2017年一个重大北欧项目，原本离竞标成功只有一步之遥，却因为方案中的一处翻译错误而痛遭否定。

Vocabulary

directory：目录

rendition：表演，表现

sickening：令人反感的

stumbling block：绊脚石