Mistake in translation not extenuating
Written by changthai11 on Sunday, October 12th, 2008
Mistake in translation not extenuating
By David Young, The China Post
TAIPEI, Taiwan –– Extenuating circumstances are circumstances that render conduct less serious and thereby serve to reduce the punishment to be imposed.
The question the son of a handicapped elderly citizen asked yesterday was whether or not a mistake in translation was an extenuating circumstance.
“It’s terrible,” said the Hsinchu resident whose handicapped father two months ago.
The son, who identified himself only by his family name of Liu, said he drove his father to the Hsinchu tax office one day in last January.
“My father had to appear before a tax inspector,” Liu said. “So I drove his car there,” he added.
He parked the car along the city street before the tax office marked “Handicapped Parking Only” in English.
Convinced that he wasn’t breaking any traffic regulations, Liu paid little heed to the warning in Chinese side by side with the permission in English in the same road sign.
When the father finished an interview and they came out of the office, the son couldn’t find the car. It had been towed away.
A traffic cop appeared from nowhere and gave him a ticket for illegal parking, Liu charged. “I remonstrated, of course,” he went on. “I produced a handicapped person’s certificate of my father, but the cop didn’t listen.”
In particular, Liu told the cop, he parked the car where the English translation says it is allowed. The cop, who certainly doesn’t understand that foreign language, insisted that Liu failed to read the warning in Chinese and therefore deserved the ticket.
The fine is NT$900 (US$28). Liu had to pay another NT$1,200 (US$84) to get the car back from the car pound.
After the death of his father, Liu appealed to the Xinzhu district court.
A district court judge asked the tax office for clarification.
There is a section of the street reserved for the handicapped, the tax office replied in writing. “So a special road sign was put up there,” it continued, “and we intended to warn against illegal parking in Chinese and English.
“But this office did not find out the mistake in the English translation. After it (the mistake) had created a controversy, it was removed.”
The office, however, said that section of the street was marked by double red lines. No car can be parked there.
“I couldn’t do anything,” Liu protested, “because the court ruled that the car was parked illegally, because I am a Chinese national and had to read the Chinese warning only.”
Liu was ordered to pay the fine earlier this week.
The judge told Liu he isn’t a “foreigner” who can claim extenuating circumstances to ignore the Chinese warning, even if the translation was wrong.
“What if a foreigner, who can read Chinese, drove my father and parked the car there?” Liu asked.
