Google Translate mistranslates Korean terms Dokdo and kimchi
Google Translate reportedly mistranslates the Korean territory name Dokdo to the Japanese term Takeshima and the Korean food kimchi to the Chinese term paocai, raising concerns about cultural representation and accurate terminology in machine translation systems.
What happened
Google Translate translates the Korean word 'Dokdo' (๋ ๋) to the Japanese term 'Takeshima' (็ซนๅณถ) when translating to Japanese, according to professor Seo Kyung-deok of Sungshin Women's University.
Google Translate translates the Korean word 'kimchi' (๊น์น) to the Chinese term 'paocai' (ๆณก่) when translating to Chinese, despite the two dishes being distinctly different.
Seo noted that Netflix correctly used the Japonic phonetic rendering 'dokuto' (ใใฏใ) for Dokdo in a variety program subtitle, and that South Korea's government established 'xinqi' (่พๅฅ) as the official Chinese transliteration for kimchi in its 2021 'Guidelines for Foreign Language Translation and Notation of Public Terms.'
Reported impact
Seo emphasized that kimchi and paocai are fundamentally different foods, suggesting the mistranslation could contribute to confusion about Korean cultural identity.
Index analysis
Seo stated that Google Maps previously contained a marking error for 'Gyeollyeolbi Islets' in the West Sea and directed searches for 'Dokdo Airport' to a Japanese 'Tsushima (Daemado) Airport,' issues which were later corrected.
Governance controls
Seo indicated intention to continue pursuing corrections through ongoing complaints and publicizing the errors to change the translations.
Classification
Sources and evidence
This record was researched and written by the Index, based on the following original reporting.