NEW MAGAZINE: POOR USE OF ENGLISH
To professionally publish anything in English you really need to have someone with native English skills proofread your content. Sadly, the latest magazine to appear on the shelves in Bangkok hasn't followed this rule - with what can only be described as hilarious results.
Open Thailand magazine bills itself as an "inflight magazine" - but without any airline affiliations. I'll write more about why this concept, in my opinion, is flawed a little later.
This is a bilingual magazine, is priced at 60 baht and runs to 64 pages. It is published by "IIC Intention Idea Cuccess". No, that's not a spelling mistake, and when a magazine cannot even get its own company correct, and that of its printer ("AB Best Service Limited Partnerhip") then you know they've got problems.
I could write reams about some of frankly comical use of English in this magazine, but I'll just give you a single example here. This is the introduction for a story about Chatuchak Weekend Market. My use of grammar and punctuation is exactly as it appears in print.
"When mention Chatuchak Weekend Market Or Jatujak Plaza Believe that both Thai and foreigners to sing OH !!! ... I see ... it immediately because this market is like. "Shopping paradise of a real" because the goods are sold to multiple formats. From local product Basketwork Accessories On page love pets look like brother and brother bad brother cat parrot colored crystalline voice."
What I find equally worrying is, in the editor's talk, is says the magazine will: ".. enhance skills in reading, English students and students with all bookish." Do your skills in English students need enhancing? And are you a student with all bookish?
The concept is flawed too. Aside from the fact no airline is likely to choose to take a magazine with such poorly written content onboard, they all have their own magazines anyway. Any serious and reputable magazine is already distributed to airline lounges and onboard. Unless a magazine can offer something new and, importantly, something professional, it's not going to come close to getting onto any airline.
Poor use of English in publications in Thailand is not uncommon, and it's one of the reasons I originally came to work in Bangkok. Publishers that intend to use English need to invest in either native English proofreading or copy checking from Thais with near native skills. Either way it costs money, but the cost of poorly produced English language content in the long term is far, far more.
18 comments:
Hello BB,
That sample is truly incomprehensible. I think it would defeat any attempt to rewrite. In fact, it could be used as a torture tool, meant to drive the inmate insane. I can't look at it anymore after reading it twice.
For contrast, I've met a number of Thai people who speak English very, very well. So all is not lost in that country. Well, at least not for reasons of English ability. They've got their other problems ;-)
Best regards, rick
Oh my! I'll have to grab a copy just to see what else they have on offer.
Hi SiamRick, thanks for commenting.
That sample is just one of many I could have chosen, all equally incomprehensible.
I agree with you 100 per cent. There are some exceptionally good Thai English language speakers, writers and editors - some of whom I know personally and are regulars here. I know, because I've tried to recruit one or two in the past, that their services come at a premium.
What I've noticed even in the last few months is an increasing number of publishers who are trying to get the kudos of publishing something in English without the professionalism to back it up. If they cannot bother to even check their output then they're not going to last long, in my opinion.
That's true anywhere in the world, not just in Thailand.
Hi Catherine,
For anyone that can read Thai it's good because they have both the Thai and English stories in the same edition. You can see where their translations have gone wrong.
It's a back-and-front magazine. Meaning Thai starts from one cover and English from the other. A small number of magazine have adopted that approach recently.
Thanks, as always, for your comments Catherine.
It looks very much like machine translation or someone using a computer "dic" (dictionary) to translate individual words.
I'd like to try pasting a small sample of Thai text from the magazine into Google translator and see if the English results match.
Phuket Observer ... your wish is my command.
My Thai editor is, as I speak, typing the Thai original text (as it doesn't appear anywhere online) for you to see - and so we can see what Google Translate makes of it.
Okay .. here is the Thai text (courtesy of my colleague Khun Buak) that appeared in the same edition of Open Thailand.
เมื่อเอ่ยถึงตลาดนัดสวนจตุจักร หรือจตุจักรพลาซ่า
เชื่อว่าทั้งชาวไทยและชาวต่างชาติ ต้องร้อง OH!!!I see… ขึ้นมาทันที
เพราะตลาดแห่งนี้เปรียบเสมือน “สวรรค์ของนักช็อปปิ้งตัวจริง”
เนื่องจากสินค้าที่นำมาวางขายมีให้เลือกหลากหลายรูปแบบ
ตั้งแต่สินค้าพื้นเมือง เครื่องจักสาน เครื่องประดับ
เรื่อยไปจนถึงสัตว์เลี้ยงหน้าตาน่ารัก อย่างน้องหมา น้องแมว
และน้องนกแก้วเสียงแจ๋วหลากสี
I've done a quick Google Translate and it looks like the English that was published is about 85% of what Google suggests. There are a few differences.
OH. MY. GOD. I'm gonna get myself a copy.
That's at least three copies I've sold for them. I should be on commission. :-)
'Poor use of English in publications in Thailand is not uncommon'
Yes there some fine examples in this very article :)
'What equally worrying is, in the editor's talk, is says the magazine will: '
MartinP ... thanks. Just goes to show everyone makes mistakes. :-) (I will now edit to correct) Thanks for pointing this out.
Wow, that's amazing. I work at a magazine that's mostly Thai but with a bit of English here and there, and we triple-check every page with different people. Sometimes mistakes still get through, but this... no excuse for this, especially in a magazine that professes to teach Thais English.
Omigosh!!! Having read this far made me want to strangle whoever dare call themselves editorial team of this so-called magazine. I'm aghast at what a lousy job they did to the English version of their write-up. Shame on you, 'Open Thailand' magazine!
I agree with other comments that poor use of English is not uncommon in Thailand but this is the first time I've seen it THIS BAD. Thanks also to those who commented on this blog for not stereotyping the Thais's English ability.
"the cost of poorly produced English language content in the long term is far, far more."
I agree. It continues to reinforce the low standards that Thailand has set itself in terms of education and foreign language (in particular English) acquisition. I believe it's a cultural issue, the "it's not worth the effort" or "I feel too lazy to check" mentality.
Is this some kind of tax dodge, I wonder...A deliberate waste of money and time in order to write off the expense?
Another comment: I was sitting outside the Charoen Complex in Chiang Mai one time. (For a smoke, OK!). A young lady was sitting near me, holding a Thai-English reference book, which she'd just bought in a chain bookstore inside the mall. I asked to see it and when I checked some of the spellings and meanings I almost exploded in volcano of colourful language. It looked like some machine had made up all the words. I hardly recognized a single "English" word. I'm not exaggerating. I wanted to tell the girl but couldn't express in Thai how bad the book was. Not to mention loss of face for buying such a waste of paper. So it's no wonder Thai's are lacking in Engish language skills.
Just come to read ur blog after a long long while. To this point, I can say that translating from this piece in Thai to English is a real pain in the ass (sorry to use this word).
I once translated a Thai essay written by a school girl, and what I could say is that I couldn't recognize my English! I really needed help from a native at the time. I can say I'd better write in English straightaway and let them translate my English to Thai :)
It is EXACTLY google translation. Can't believe they let it out published! Shame.
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