Cameroon: Shocking translations during exams

La Republique is a country of never-ending wonders. The question of wrong and misleading translations has become an integral part of our nation. In spite of the huge presence of so-called National Commission for the Promotion of Bilingualism and Multiculturalism, terrible translations still prevail, especially during examinations.

The case of the Advanced School of Mass Communication in Yaounde is so shocking that one does not know where to start from. This is a school that trains journalists and other members of the communications chain.

Let us start with the student identity card. On this card delivered a few days ago, “Nom” is translated into English as Name while “Prenom” is replaced by Surname. Most shockingly, “Matricule” in French is unaltered in English.

“Prenom”  in English is given name, first name or Christian name . “Matricule “refers to registration number.

The worst part of the story is the case of the end-of-year exams that ended on Friday. “Les caracteristiques du recit journalistique” was translated into English as “What are the characteristics of the storytelling?” on a question paper for Level II, journalism students.

 Another question on the same paper followed in the same line: “Comment s’articulent les relations entre les agents technico-artistiques en studio et sur le plateau?” The English version of this question read: “Relationship between the anchor and technical artistic agents in the studio and on the TV stage.”

We may not be translators yet there is every indication that something is wrong with these translations.

 In case you still doubt it, the examiners realized that everything was not going right and came in to propose an even-worse version of the second question in English while students were already several minutes into the exam.

We may have to end here, for there are many other cases that we can still examine.

This shocking reality leaves one wondering if Cameroon does not have trained translators.