It Started with One Small Notice
We were sending a seminar schedule notice in four languages. The Korean original said 「10/11, 3 PM」 and the translation bot copied it faithfully. The trouble was with English readers. Americans read month/day, Europeans read day/month. The same digits could mean October 11 or November 10.
The bot was not wrong. A vague original simply spread its vagueness into four languages.
How Often Did It Happen?
We counted schedule-related questions over one month. Questions like 「Is this date right?」 came to 4, mostly from English and Traditional Chinese readers. Each one is small, but the time spent replying and the worry on the reader's side add up. With schedules, a mistake turns straight into a no-show.
The Fix
We added one line to the translation bot's guidelines on the Mac mini.
Never write a date as digits only. Spell out the month.
Example: 10/11 → 10월 11일 / October 11 / 10月11日
We also had it attach the weekday. If the weekday does not match, that signals the date is wrong. The review bot got just one job: check that the date and weekday agree with each other.
Result
The following month, questions of this kind dropped to 0. One guideline line and one review line were all it took. The setup stayed the same: drafts on the Windows device, translation and review on the Mac mini.
Today's Notes
• A digits-only date is read differently in each language
• Spell out the month and add the weekday
• The narrower the review checklist, the faster and more accurate it gets