How accurate is Google Translate when Russia is translated to ‘Mordor’

Anyone familiar with world politics will know that over the years there has been tension between Eastern European country Ukraine and Eurasian country Russia. Just when you thought couldn’t get any worse, the most popular machine translation platform Google Translate managed to muddle up some sensitive words when it came to the translation of words from Ukrainian into Russian. Needless to say had this been for professional or business use, professional Russian translation services should have been sought after.

Reports by Russia’s News state news agency RIA Navosti stated that words relating to Russia and one of its politicians were improperly translated from Ukrainian to Russian. The words that were interpreted were insulting and demeaning to Russia and its people. The words in question include the phrase Russian Federation which translated into Russian as Mordor when inserted into Google translate. Mordor is a fictional place in the world created by writer J. R. R. Tolkien which is most known for its depiction the Lord of the Rings as an evil place where cruelties such as torture are an occurrence. Newsweek reported that Pro-Ukranian groups took to the term when referring to Russia. Newsweek also reported that when translating the last name of Russia’s foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, the machine translation interpreted his name as ‘sad-little-horse’. Another glitch which was spotted was the word Russians which when translated from Ukrainian read as ‘occupiers’ in the Russian language.

Whether or not this was a result of successful hacking or perhaps just a machine error, Google did respond by saying that Google Translate “worked by looking for patterns in hundreds of millions of documents but translation remained difficult as the meaning of words was tied to the context in which they were used”. “This means that not all translations are perfect, and there will sometimes be mistakes or mistranslations”.

Such happenings always create a debate as to whether platforms such as google translate are reliable when it comes to website content translation or even Russian financial document translation to be specific. Google has stated that ‘although translations are conducted automatically it is possible for users to suggest alternative translations manually’ which can sometimes leave room for biased results. The best way to be sure to receive an accurate translation is to use translation services by human translators especially when you are translating for work, legal or educational purposes.

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