Marta and others, I think after you read any of the translations to English, you get the idea that Bablefish is not perfect. It is good for a laugh and if you have some idea of the information in the "foreign language" you are trying to translate to English, you can usually work out the details. Actually, in some of the translation I have done (for myself) I have often left the strange English in to perhaps convey some subtle (?) information in the original. Anyway, definitely good for a laugh. But then much of what I write in English is too.
Anne On Thursday, February 17, 2005, at 01:42 PM, Marta Edie wrote: > 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 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2480 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.math.louisville.edu/pipermail/macgroup/attachments/20050217/de67fc1d/attachment.bin
