Malaysian Ministry of Defense Relies on Google Translate to Embarrassing Results

Anyone that has used Google Translate knows that you can't really trust Google Translate. It gets the job done if you're trying to understand a website or text in a foreign language.

It may even make it possible to send a message to someone that doesn't speak your language. But it's certainly not good enough to be used in any serious manner, not even if you're trying to get your homework done fast.

Unfortunately, Google Translate is used in cases where it really shouldn't, as the Malaysian Ministry of Defence found out in a rather embarrassing way.

It seems that the institution relied on Google Translate to create the English-language version of its website. As you can expect, the translation was far from perfect, sometimes to amusing results.

As you can also expect, the English language version of the site went viral over sites such as Twitter or Facebook.

There are 12 million Facebook users in Malaysia and many of them do in fact speak English, so the funny website got passed around quite a lot before it was took down by the authorities, after realizing their mistake.

Before this, though, the site had gems like "clothes that poke eye" when describing the type of clothes not appropriate to wear by ministry personnel.

Something that was permitted to wear, for men at least, was a "tight Malay civet."

Less funny but perhaps more embarrassing, the site also read "After the withdrawal of British army, the Malaysian Government take drastic measures to increase the level of any national security threat."

At this point, the English language version of the site has been taken down until the mistakes are corrected.

"We have corrected the mistakes and translations are no longer done that way. It is now done manually," Defense Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, explained.