As I was reading the Macuser newsletter and found the mention of
Babelfish translations, I want to sound a warning. Please never use
this site if you need a translation for other than personal use, i.e.
any official purpose , or don't want to embarrass yourself to speakers
of a foreign language, or believe when you put in a foreign language
block you get a meaningful translation of what the author really said
- I used to make use of this website when I needed a hearty laugh -
the nonsense that came out of those translations and the utter
contrived sentence structure could make you wince. Maybe it has gotten
better over the years. - Just this morning , though, an example :
"scienstists of this country" in a sequence was translated into
:Landwissenschaftler whatever that might mean, ( scientists who study
land or soil?)---- the plain old word "Mutter" ( mother ) used in a
block of writing from German to English came through as a" screw" - I
suppose because the feminine part of a screw , what we call a "nut" is
called "Mutter" in German. It is one of those words with double
meaning. --This site is perhaps good in translating words--- but the
meaning leaves a lot to be desired. - I don't underestimate the
daunting task of the writers of this website, but I would bet that
what you get is often far from the meaning you want to convey. I like
the name of the site, though, it does tell you they are fishing in the
sea of multiple tongued creatures, and it isn't easy to come up with
the right fish. Translators often need days or months to come up with
a viable translation of a foreign article or piece of fiction- ( and
even then so often fall short when it comes to subtleties) that it is
understandable that these quicky translations must contain errors .
Marta
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