Don't GoogleTranslate

[WishfulSpirit]

I use it for Spanish at work, but that's only when I need to ask the Spanish-speaking housekeepers where something is. As long as they can figure out I'm asking for bath towels or shampoo, it's not really a huge issue if my usage isn't totally right. I'm not writing a book here.

[AccountingDrone]

I only use GoogleTranslate for short phrases and pronunciation (which in my experience has been pretty spot on). The sad thing is Google is one of the better online translation sites out there. But it still doesn't do you much good if you don't have some passing familiarity with the language in question. Context is important in every language and a computer just can't deal with that.

If you want German, try LEO. I get lost in the phrases sections link hopping

[catcul]

I had to replace a keyboard for a police station. They had an alert in both English and Spanish.

They used the wrong left. They used "izquierda" (the opposite of the direction right) instead of "se fueron" (They went away).

[jedimaster91]

If you want German, try LEO. I get lost in the phrases sections link hopping

Funny thing. I took German in highschool and have recently been wanting to pick it back up again. Hubz heard about this app called DuoLingo on NPR and that's what I've been using. It's free and the background on how the app came to be is quite fascinating. Seems a feller was wanting to translate old books into English from their original texts. Computers do a fair enough job for the most part, but there were parts the computers couldn't figure out. So he created this app to get input from real people. Users get to learn a language and based on how they translate a phrase, that translation might get used in these books. Bit of a majority rules kind of thing.

[manybellsdown]

I've got a few friends in Norway, and the only thing I know how to say in Norwegian is "Happy Birthday." They're all fluent in English, but sometimes there's something they can only really say in Norwegian and I try to respond in kind. Google translate has been ... spotty.

I told my friend, when she was unsure about her new haircut, that she was always gorgeous. Or so I thought. Apparently, what I actually told her was "you're always looking for pretty." OOPS.

[Ironclad Alibi]

I've heard the apocrophal story about someone who created an automated English/Chinese translator, and tested it with the phrase "Out of sight, out of mind". Since he couldn't read Chinese, he ran the output through again in Chinese-to-English mode. The result? "Blind lunatic".

The first example I heard of computer translation was with the phrase "hydraulic ram." It was supposedly translated into Greek and back to English. The end result was "water goat."

[Chromatix]

One of the story ideas which I keep returning to for NaNoWriMo involves two main characters who don't speak each other's language - and one of the few tools they have to assist them is Google Translate. Or, more specifically, offline Google Translate on a smartphone.

If you think the online version is quirky...

[AccountingDrone]

One of the story ideas which I keep returning to for NaNoWriMo involves two main characters who don't speak each other's language - and one of the few tools they have to assist them is Google Translate. Or, more specifically, offline Google Translate on a smartphone.

If you think the online version is quirky...

It can be fun hanging out with a bunch that don't all speak each others language. My mom and I were in Paris the year I did school in Rouen and we ran into a cop with a German tourist. The tourist spoke to my mom [Amish dialect of German is close enough to regular German], my mom spoke to me, and I spoke to the cop. I also used to have fun down in Norfolk at the Operations Base when foreign vessels docked. See, as a dependent I could go anywhere my security clearance allowed me, so I used to hit the piers to see what came in so I have hung out on a number of foreign ships - I would take a friend along so I wasn't alone, and the basic rule of touring a ship is to ask the deck watch to ask an officer if there was a tour available. The only 'organized' tour I ever went on was when the then Soviet fleet did a port call and they organized official tours of one ship [so they could control what people saw =) ] though somewhere I have a thank you letter from the San Juan and one from the French government for hanging out for a day translating for a bunch of French midshipmen touring the sub - the official translator never showed up so Rob called me and asked me to come down and work for the day.

[Ted_The_IT_Guy]

Yes, Breton is in the gaelic family as opposed to the Romance (French, Italian, Spanish) family of languages. Its closest kin are Welsh and Cornish.

The Bretons, culturally, are closer to the British Isles than metropolitan France. Bretagne has only officially been part of France for 400 years or so, and they LOVE potatoes just as much as the Irish do. They were kicked OFF the isles when William The Conqueror did his thing.

They are also one of the most Catholic parts of France. I want to see attend one year the international Celtic festival, which is held in Bretagne every year. That type of music rules.

Now that embracing your Breton roots is "cool" in that part of France, my wife hates the posers who take things a bit too far. She was taking Breton language lessons 30 years ago, SHE can truly lay claim to Breton pride.

[C. Cecil Ivanish]

this app called DuoLingo
...
the background on how the app came to be is quite fascinating.

I'm using it for German too - and I love the story, I didn't know it.
Although when the woman's voice told me for the third time in a row ICH BIN NICHT NORMAL I started doubting her

[CloserToSane]

I've used DuoLingo for the basics in Italian (I really struggle with languages). We use Google translate in work if we're waiting for an official translation.

[catcul]

When I was still in high school, a man who graduated about 5 years before me came back after spending a year in Spain. Here an exchange he had with his friends on a train:

What he meant to say: I have been very embarrassed lately.
What he actually said: I have been very pregnant lately.
People on the bus:

If he was embarrassed before, ...

embarrassed = avergonzado
pregnant = embarazada

[Ted_The_IT_Guy]

What he meant to say: I have been very embarrassed lately.


embarrassed = avergonzado
pregnant = embarazada

My French teacher in high school once told us about how she was asking a family there whether there were any preservatives in the jam they were using at breakfast...and accidentally used the word for condom instead.

I doubt there were condoms in the jam.

[jedimaster91]

The first example I heard of computer translation was with the phrase "hydraulic ram." It was supposedly translated into Greek and back to English. The end result was "water goat."

Well, it's not wrong....

[nutraxfornerves]

A copy of a post of mine on another board.

A friend of mine was an avid motorcyclist who often traveled to Baja California to go "dirt bikin'." Because of all his trips and because he worked in agriculture, he spoke pretty serviceable street Spanish. One day he got a flat tire. It was a slow leak, so he figured if he could get a bicycle pump, he could put enough air in it to get him to a mechanic. He got out his dictionary and looked up (he thought) "pump" and "puncture." He began flagging down passing cars & making his request. After the third driver sped off with a look of horror on his face, my friend figured that something was very wrong. He switched to pointing to the tire, saying "it's broken," and pantomiming a bicycle pump. Pretty soon, he got what he needed.

While hanging around the garage until the tire was repaired, he asked the mechanic what had gone wrong. It seems that, in his haste, my friend had missed a little nautical symbol next to the word he had chosen for "pump;" moreover, the word he used for "puncture" had sexual connotations in that part of Mexico. He had been flagging down drivers, telling them that he had performed an unnatural act with his motorcycle, and did they have a bilge pump?