On Monday, the defence minister told the Star that Mindef used Google for the translations that everyone’s laughing about, trying to pass the blame to the free online translation service. » Mindef blames Google Translate for ‘poke-eye’ blunder
Really?
This table consists of a few examples. Was Google at fault, or the ministry? Was the defence minister telling the truth, or trying to pass blame to others?
Ministry Engrish and Google translation compared
| Original | Mindef v Google | |
| ETIKA BERPAKAIAN | M | Ethical Clothing |
| G | GARMENT OF ETHICS | |
| ETIKA BERPAKAIAN UNTUK LELAKI | M | Dress code FOR MEN |
| G | ETHICS GARMENT FOR MEN | |
| iii) Pakaian baju melayu lengkap dengan bersamping dan bersongkok warna gelap. | M | iii) complete with Malay dress clothes and bersongkok bersamping dark. |
| G | iii) Clothing Malay shirt and wear a cap full of dark bersamping. | |
| a) berkolar baju Melayu cekak musang berbutang tiga | M | a) collared shirts and tight Malay civet berbutang three |
| G | a) Malays fight fox collar shirts button three | |
| i)berbutang hadapan | M | i) forward berbutang |
| G | i) next button | |
| PAKAIAN YANG TIDAK DIBENARKAN | M | CLOTHING NOT ALLOWED |
| G | CLOTHING IS NOT ALLOWED | |
| Cara berpakaian yang tidak dibenarkan dalam waktu bekerja: | M | The dress code is not allowed in the work: |
| G | Modes of dress are not permitted in working hours: | |
| a) Berpakaian yang memberi sangkaan ianya seolah-olah hendak menghadiri pesta ataupun ke tempat perkelahan | M | a) Dress up that thought it seems to want to attend a party or picnic |
| G | a) Wear clothes that give impression it seems to want to attend a party or picnic | |
| b) Pakaian yang menjolok mata | M | b) Clothes that poke eye |
| G | b) of scantily clothes | |
When a govt lies about a small thing,
can you trust them with big things?
uppercaise 
Quite amazing, though not unexpected, that no local `journalist’ (at least none that I know of) took the initiative to do this comparison. Says a lot about our `journalists’.
Clothes that poke eye ! Aduihhh, sakitnya…
Good God!!!!Words fail me…
The fact that they use Google Translate alone is stupid enough! Who the heck would use Google Translate alone to translate a sentence? Of course it’ll be a laughing matter!
Regardless of what their feeble excuses are, the perpetrator of the grammatical mistakes may have done “word by word” translation, which resulted in some of these funny grammatical slights.
This minister has had more than his share of silly comments., the best yet being, him trying to justify that a navy submarines inability to submerge would not compromise it’s tactical ability…duuh!
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MINDEF, i tawarkan diri tuk translate dlm english. bayran takpe..tak mahal. RM5 ribu je…kompom terbaik….ko kan banyak duit….
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