City of LV’s website struggles with Spanish

Monday, Feb. 25, 2002 | 11:06 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman called President Bush's decision on Yucca Mountain contrary with his desire for cow meat before the country's security.

Confused? Welcome to the Spanish-speaking world of Las Vegas. In an attempt to reach out to the city's growing Hispanic community, which now makes up a quarter of the city's population, the city of Las Vegas has posted a link to its website in Spanish.

But the capricious hand of the computer program chosen to do the translation is mangling the language and angering the community it meant to help.

Take these examples, translated literally back into English:

While the above examples may be funny, translators and Hispanic advocates aren't laughing.

"This is an insult," said Mariteresa Rivera-Rogers, program administrator for the 8th Judicial District Court Interpreter Services for the past 20 years. "The words are Spanish, but it makes no sense.

"If this is done to communicate, it would almost be better off not to put it into Spanish at all, or to have a qualified person translate only the most essential information contained in the site."

The translation, done by a computer program called Babelfish.com, has been online since Jan. 30, David Riggleman, communications director for the city, said.

When you click onto the link, a disclaimer pops up that says, "The city of Las Vegas assumes no liability or responsibility for errors, omissions or ambiguities in the translations."

The message goes on to say,"This free service is provided for our website visitors who do not communicate in English."

Riggleman said the quantity of information -- 1,500 pages, some of which change weekly -- made paying a translator, or even buying sophisticated translation software, too expensive.

"So although it's not perfect, we went with this free service because we thought it was better than not having anything," he said.

Las Vegas is the only municipal agency in Southern Nevada that has made the move to offer information from its website in Spanish, Riggleman said.

He also said he has received no complaints on the translation, except from some who have questioned why information should be provided in a language other than English in the first place.

But Hispanic advocates said the outcome is as important as the effort.

"This (website) is problematic," Teri De la Torre-Azeman, executive director of the Nevada Association of Latin Americans, said.

Founded in 1969, the Las Vegas-based nonprofit is Nevada's oldest agency providing social services to Hispanics.

"For Spanish-speaking people, this is an insult to their intelligence. It's funny, but it's not supposed to be.

"Even though the city says they're not doing the translation, the website is still a reflection of the city, and they should take responsibility for it."

Rivera-Rogers gave credit to the city for making the attempt, but said the results were lacking.

"I'm sure they meant well, but their intentions are not working. I commend them, but the job should be done right."