US Government has major beef with South Korea
All is apparently not well on the Translation Services front between the USA and South Korea…and by the information brought to the fore during this spat; all does not seem to be well with US animal feed policy either.
The problems came to light during recent Beef talks between the two countries where S Korean linguistic standards were called into serious question when a major document relating to cattle feed rules was seriously mistranslated by the South Koreans. The US rules allow cattle under 30 months old to be used as animal feed even if they have neither been tested as fit for human consumption nor have had their brains and spinal cords removed (known causes of possible BSE contamination).
The South Korean translators in a show of epic incompetence, however, mistranslated the rules to read the exact opposite making the rules state that even cattle under 30 months must be fit for consumption and have parts removed in order to be acceptable as fit for animal feed usage; this lead to embarrassing misunderstandings throughout the length of the talks.
The South Korean Government in an embarrassing and rather candid apology stated that it acknowledged major weaknesses in the standards of linguistic ability throughout the State apparatus and attributed this to its policy of rotating all State officials into different posts every 1 year, leading to a situation where no official had the opportunity to build up expertise in any one specific area of ability. The policy, they stated, was currently under review.
In the meantime, lets look at the official US animal feed policy again: The rules allow cattle under 30 months old to be used as animal feed even if they have neither been tested as fit for human consumption nor have had their brains and spinal cords removed (known causes of possible BSE contamination).
Personally…mistranslated or not, I think I prefer the South Korean understanding of what the rules should be.