I just wanted to find out if I am wasting my time. I have been in
Puerto Rico for 4.5 years now and I understand a great deal of Spanish
- but I would not say I am fluent. Once get outside my area of
expertise (computer systems) I often don't understand words that don't
come up a lot in contexts that I am reading. I use Google translate to
look up single words, phrases I don't understand, and entire paragraph
from emails I receive.
Once I see the translation of the pieces I don't understand the
meaning of the paragraph becomes clear, and I can see how some parts
have been rearranged incorrectly or words translated to to a
particular country's style (usually Mexico as opposed to generally
accepted word translation. When this happens, I try to provide a
better translation. I have been doing this for almost two years now,
and I have not seen an improvement in the translation that takes place
with Spanish to English and in fact I believe the translation of
English to Spanish has actually gotten worse.
So basically I am just inquiring as to whether or not the things that
I submit are being used or if I am wasting my time trying to make this
a better tool. I don't mind taking the time to supply better
translations if it will help others get past the struggles of trying
to understand a foreign language, but not seeing an improvement in the
tool over a lengthy period makes me feel my efforts are wasted.
Basically, I am just looking for reassurance that my effort is
actually contributing something and not just going into what we call
the 'bit bucket'.
