By Lee Tae-hoon
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) has corrected major translation mistakes and spelling errors found on English displays set up to introduce foreign visitors about the history of the nation’s highest military command authority in its new building opened Wednesday in Yongsan, Seoul.
The move came in response to a Korea Times report that displays located in the third-floor foyer not only spelled former President Syngman Rhee’s surname both as Rhee and Lee, but also mistranslated his presidential office as a police building.
The JCS has also changed other critical mistakes that the paper pointed out, such as “task force” being misspelled as “take force.”
“It wasn’t just a matter of human mistakes, such as spelling errors,” a senior JCS official admitted.
“We have realized that military officials in charge of the translation matter completely neglected their duty and overlooked the use of awkward English expressions and inconsistency in writing styles, such as the use of abbreviations.”
The official added that several JCS officials fluent in English revised the flawed texts.
Another JCS official said that the military will continue revisions by the end of the year and will later seek consultation from native English speakers.
He said the JCS would welcome help from The Korea Times readers, including David Roberts, an American citizen in Korea.
Roberts expressed his interest to help the JCS edit and proof-read its English displays without charging a fee after reading the paper’s Thursday article, “JCS’s English displays fraught with mistakes.”
The Korea Times was unable to confirm whether the JCS has corrected all of the major mistakes as it did not keep its promise to provide pictures of the displays, nor allow its reporters to enter the new building to take pictures of the revised text.