ENGLISH AND MACHINE TRANSLATION

No Google Translate, please, if you want to speak proper English

Moeun Chhean Nariddh / Khmer Times

February 3, 2021

English Class signs in the 1990s (Facebook)

On a Thursday afternoon, young students are cheerfully engaging in English conversation with each other as their teacher smilingly looks on at a private English language school on the bank of the Mekong River in Kandal province, about 40 kilometres northeast of Phnom Penh.

Choeun Thida, a 22-year-old English teacher at the school, has been teaching English for three years. She says she is happy that many young Cambodian students are interested in learning English.

“Now, Cambodia has been integrated into the world,” she says. “So, students need to learn English so that they can communicate with people in other countries.”

“Knowing English also makes it easier for the students to look for work when they finish their studies,” Thida adds.

Var Thary, a 13-year-old student who studies level 3 of the English book Super Kids, says she has been studying English at a private English school for more than one year, after she returns from public school.

“I think English is useful for me,” she says. “I can work at a foreign company when I know English well.”

Like Thary, 12-year-old Hun Piseth says he has just started learning English and will try to practise what he has learned.

“I always say ‘Hello! How are you?’ when I see a foreigner riding a bicycle passing by,” he says. “They would reply by saying ‘hi’ to me.”

Piseth says he will also learn Japanese because he wants to go and work in Japan so that he can send money back to his family in Cambodia.

“The Japanese have a lot of money and they are very kind,” he says.

When asked which country he wants to visit, 13-year-old Bun Heng says he wants to go to the United States. But, he says he is unsure if his English is useful in the US.

“Do the American people speak English?” he asks.

“Of course,” Thary says.

“If so, I want to go to America,” Heng continues.

He says he has heard that there is a lot of jobs in the US.

“But, I want to go to France,” says Thary.

“But, you are learning English?” Piseth interrupts.

“I think French people can also speak English,” Thary responds.

Regardless of which countries the three young students want to go to, it will take a lot more time before they can acquire a good command of English.

Of course, learning foreign languages has had quite a remarkable history in Cambodia.

In the 1980s after the Khmer Rouge’s brutal regime was overthrown, Cambodian students were forbidden from learning English or French or any languages of capitalist countries under a socialist government.

At that time, students were only allowed to study either Vietnamese or Russian, which was mandatory in high school education in Cambodia.

However, some students managed to learn English or French in secret.

When Cambodia was opening up to the world in the 1990s, young Cambodians with limited English skills tried to get employment with the United Nations Transitional Authority in Cambodia (UNTAC), which was overseeing the first general election in the country after over two decades of civil war.

Two friends are said to have tried to apply for a job at an UNTAC office with the supervisor coming from an African country.

After his interview, a friend named Sok who spoke better English secretly tried to prompt his friend with some questions and answers.

“You know, the interview is dead easy,” he told his friend. “They start by asking ‘how are you?’ and you can say ‘I am fine, thanks’.”

“Then, they will ask what your name is,” Sok said. “And you can say your name is Sao.”

“When they ask about your age, you can tell them you are 22 years old,” Sok continued.

“But, don’t forget to say ‘both’ when they ask if you can speak English or French,” Sok reminded his friend.

Unfortunately, the interview did not turn out that way when Sao entered the room for questioning.

“What is your name?” the interview started, skipping the usual greetings.

“I am fine, thanks,” Sao replied guessingly.

“How old are you,” the interviewer continued with a stronger accent.

“My name is Sao,” the rather terrifying interviewee responded with another guess.

Apparently getting lost, the UNTAC officer burst into anger and asked the hardest question.

“Sorry, out of you and me, who is crazy?” he interrogated Sao, slapping the table.

“Both,” Sao politely replied.

However, English language incompetence did help an UNTAC police officer apprehend a bicycle thief who knew only three English words – yes, no and OK.

The interrogation began.

“Is this your bicycle?” he asked.

“Yes,” the suspect replied.

“Did you steal it?” the officer continued.

“No,” the presumed thief answered fearlessly.

“Do you want to go to jail?” the police officer concluded.

“OK,” the suspect said proudly.

As smartphones and the internet become more available and cheaper, some people with little English skills resort to Google translation when they want to communicate with foreigners.

However, mistakes can easily be made through literal translation by Google from Khmer to English like in other languages.

A funny example is said of a driver at a foreign company who tried to ask to take leave after using Google translation to translate a Khmer jargon.

“Sorry, my expensive sister crossed the river, so I want to stop working today,” he pleaded with his confusing boss who needed a translator to tell him that the driver meant: “Sorry, my sister-in-law has given birth to a baby, so I would like to take a day off today.”

Indeed, miscommunication and getting lost in translation is not new.

At the height of the cold war, Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev was reportedly giving a speech in which he uttered a phrase that interpreted from Russian as “we will bury you.” It was taken as a chilling threat to bury the US with a nuclear attack and escalated the tension between the US and Russia.

When US President Jimmy Carter travelled to Poland in 1977, the State Department hired a Russian interpreter who knew Polish but was not used to professional interpretation. Through the interpreter, Carter said in Polish “when I abandoned the United States” (for “when I left the United States”) and “your lusts for the future” (for “your desires for the future”), mistakes that the media very much enjoyed.

Available at: https://www.khmertimeskh.com/50809945/no-google-translate-please-if-you-want-to-speak-proper-english/. Accessed on February 4, 2021.