Saturday 25 April 2015

[Straits Times] Improve standard of translation

WHEN I compared Chinese Premier Li Keqiang's press conference with the Chinese and foreign press on March 15 and the special parliamentary tribute session for Mr Lee Kuan Yew on March 26, it is clear that the translators' language proficiency is worlds apart.
Despite Singapore's decades-long head start in bilingual and bicultural education, our translator's proficiency (from Mandarin to English) was, unfortunately, miles behind China's.
The vast difference cannot be attributed solely to the simultaneous translation needed for the Singapore Parliament session, compared with the Chinese press conference translation, which came after Premier Li's answers.
The difference was not only in terms of fluency but also in word choice, intonation, accent and poise.
I would have expected the proficiency of translators in our Parliament to be of a supreme standard.
Cheang Peng Wah