Smee
Joined: 24 Dec 2004
Location: Jeollanam-do
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 Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:55 am Post subject: A couch that's a particular shade of brown |
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Chinese translation error blamed for slur on sofa label
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TORONTO, Ontario (AP) -- Doris Moore was shocked when her new couch was delivered to her Toronto home with a label that used a racial slur to describe the dark brown shade of the upholstery.
The situation was even more alarming for Moore because it was her 7-year-old daughter who pointed out "nigger brown" on the tag.
"My daughter saw the label and she knew the color brown, but didn't know what the other word meant. She asked, 'Mommy, what color is that?' I was stunned. I didn't know what to say. I never thought that's how she'd learn of that word," Moore said.
The mother complained to the furniture store, which blamed the supplier, who pointed to a computer problem as the source of the derogatory label
Kingsoft Corp., a Chinese software company, acknowledged its translation program was at fault and said it was a regrettable error.
"I know this is a very bad word," Huang Luoyi, a product manager for the Beijing-based company's translation software, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
He explained that when the Chinese characters for "dark brown" are typed into an older version of its Chinese-English translation software, the offensive description comes up.
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http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/04/19/canada.couch.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories |
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