What do you think of when you hear the words “language conflict”? Quebec,

Canada? Miami, Florida? Try the Washington State, Secretary of State’s

office, which is under fire for the <A

HREF=”http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002160886_translate26m.html”>inaccuracy

of its Chinese translations. Example: a statement about Secretary of State

Sam Reed proposing “statewide mandates to restore public trust” was

translated as “Swampy weed suggests whole state order recover open trust.”

Seattle’s Organization of Chinese Americans claims to have found more than

100 examples of incorrectly used Chinese words, phrases and grammar on the

secretary of state’s site.

Professional ethnic activists are, of course, horribly offended: “The poor

translations on the site were insulting to some people,” Debbie Hsu

complained.

The state’s response? A “translation disclaimer” that said the state could

not vouch for the accuracy of Web translations.

Washington State taxpayers paid about $6,000 annually for the computerized

translation system and can expect to pay much more if their state is forced

to hire more interpreters. How about English classes instead?

Full disclosure: I serve as Executive Director of <A

HREF=”http://www.englishfirst.org”>English First, which advocates

getting rid of this kind of divisive, expensive nonsense.