Tuesday 5 January 2016

Ukip make Welsh Translation gaffe again.


Ukip was ridiculed on Monday after the party got its use of the Welsh language wrong when advertising its party conference.
The party is holding its annual conference in Llandudno next month.


A poster on Ukip Wales’ Twitter feed mocked up a familiar bilingual Welcome to Wales sign to advertise the event.




But the translation of Welcome to Wales was incorrect, reading: “Croeso y Gymru”, which instead translates to “Welcome The Wales”.

There's many a Welsh learner made that mistake and readers of this Blog are aware of my frequent typos for which I apologise.

But I don't think I am being hypocritical here  I write this blog usually daily and do not have someone to proof read it. Ukip  are a Political party that will be fighting for seats in the Welsh Assembly . They surely have someone fluent enough in Welsh to check this out?

We must not assume that there is no support for Ukip amonst Welsh speakers or that they are purely a party of incomers.

According to Wales Online

"The message was posted at around 2pm on Monday but remained on the Twitter feed until 5pm after WalesOnline approached Ukip for comment.
The sign was roundly mocked by Twitter users.

Ifan Morgan Jones reminded Ukip of the correct translation, ticking the party off for "people comin' over here not learning our language".
It's Croeso i Gymru not Croeso y Gymru. People comin' overe ere not learnin our language...;)
It isn't the first time Ukip has been associated with a mistranslation of Welsh. In 2013 its website promoted the organisation as the “Plaid Annibyniaeth y Du” - or the Black Independence Party.

 As was reported at the time

it seems the problem of translating simple English into Welsh is still causing a problem for some bodies – including one of the country’s biggest supermarkets and a resurgent political party.
In South Wales, a branch of Tesco had mislabelled the aisle containing furniture polish, “Pwylaidd” – the Welsh translation for the Polish nationality.
Customer Ian Cottrell was in the Cogan branch of the store when he saw the wrong translation, which he said is a somewhat more serious issue than merely an amusing mistake.
“I was walking down the aisle named ‘Pwylaidd’ and thought the store had a new Polish food section, but I looked down and saw lots of Brasso and Mr Sheen,” he said.
Capped up DU stands for an abbreviation of Y Deyrnas Unedig – the Welsh translation of “UK” – but “Du”, which the website used, translates as “black”.

As I said  everybody makes mistakes but Ukip like Tesco and Ukip seem to be using Google Translate rather than ask a qualified Translator.

 I like Goggle Translate. I particularly use it to read Cai Larson's Blog Menai one of the best Blogs in English or Welsh covering Wales.

But at the moment it is not good enough to provide a full and accurate Translation.

As I wrote above. Ukip are not a party consisting purley of Incomers, but unless Ukip want to avoid looking like a Party of English interlopers in Wales they should  improve their Welsh Translation .

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So Nigel Farage is apparently turning into Huey Newton? whoever would have thought it! 'Right on bro', as nigel and the welsh kippers would say :)

Unknown said...

Och Glyn they are a Party of Interlopers where ever they go. They are lets face it mostly the Really Right Wing Party of the South East of England. We have our lovely also Right Wing Press and TV for feeding their nonsense to mostly not very bright people. They play on people's fears about foreigners. I would had I the money take most of the people who currently vote for them across the sea and show them how many people live and it is a whole lot better than the rubbish we are putting up with. I would start in the Netherlands and go through Germany France Switzerland, Austria Slovakia and onto Hungary. Might open a few eyes, seems we are failing badly and the only reason any migrants want to come here is to be able to travel onto other English Speaking countries like Canada or Australia or if they qualify the US.

Anonymous said...

As you rightly point out Glyn, this is another example of political parties not taking the language seriously.

However, it's a great improvement from the way the language was treated in the past. This was particularly true of Labour. The Kinnock clan attempts to undermine the Welsh nationalist movement by using the language to smear political opponents is a prime example.

Today, these attacks are much less likely, however most of the parties in Wales today pay little more than 'lip service' to the language.

As my old Welsh teacher might say, "4/10 for effort, however, too many careless mistakes. Could do better"