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Beware of Online Translations!

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 3:26 pm
by Stargzer
I use Systranet (www.systranet.net) a lot for a quick translation, but you have to be careful: it can't handle Latin!

(Emphasis added in quotes below)
Nouveaux horaires de la Demeure du Chaos :

Mars Avril Mai 2010 :
chaque week-end et jours fériés
de 15h00 à 18h30


Nouveau :
13 mars 2010 - long métrage en avant première : Abode of Chaos : Ecce Homo
Ecce Homo at Wikipedia for those not familiar with Latin.
New schedules of the Residence of Chaos:

March May 2010 April:
each weekend and bank holidays
15:00 at 18:30


New:
March 13th, 2010 - feature-length film ahead first: Abode of Chaos: Gay Ecce

Posted: Fri Mar 12, 2010 4:07 pm
by Slava
This will be an ongoing problem until computers learn to reason, not simply react. It may be apocryphal, but here's my favorite story from way back of running a translation through a computer: "Out of sight, out of mind" became "Blind, insane."

Online translators

Posted: Sun Mar 14, 2010 11:24 am
by Dr. Goodword
I suspect it, too, is Systran, but I still use Babelfish

http://babelfish.yahoo.com/

Not good but as good as it gets.

Posted: Mon Mar 15, 2010 12:36 am
by Stargzer
New schedules of the Residence of Chaos: March April May 2010: each weekend and bank holidays 15:00 with 18:30 New: March 13, 2010 - feature-length film ahead first: Abode off Chaos: Ecce Homo
I may start using Babelfish. I think Systranet was out before Babelfish and it's a sentimental favorite because I think I found the link on the AlphaAgora. (It was on one of Dr. Beard's sites, that much I do know; I remember using the Web of Online Dictionaries waaaaay back when.)

Posted: Thu Apr 01, 2010 11:39 am
by LukeJavan8
I use Babelfish and Google. It's not bad, either, usually
similar to Babelfish.

Posted: Thu May 24, 2012 11:14 pm
by Philip Hudson
Slava: This thread has rested a while so I thought I might pipe up. Your humorous computer translation in which "Out of sight, out of mind" became "Blind, insane" reminds me of a news item translated from Russian to English during Soviet union days. The article was about the recalcitrance of a certain religious group in the then Soviet Union. The English sentence was: “In the city of Kiev a group of Fifty Day Christians have refused to register.” I don’t know whether the translator’s native language was Russian or English. I am interested in religions and especially in cults. I resolved to look into those Fifty Day Christians. Then I realized that someone had taken the Greek word Πεντηκοστή and translated it, not knowing the spiritual meaning of the word didn't need traslation. I concluded the subject Christians were Pentecostals!

I am actually out of my league in this discussion since the only languages I really know are Texan and English.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 12:07 am
by Slava
I must wonder why the fifty, not the five.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 12:21 am
by LukeJavan8
Forty Days to Ascension, then 10 days later = 50:
Pentecost, thus Pentecostals.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 12:55 am
by Perry Lassiter
I've used Babelfish for the longest, but I've found if I know the language at all, inserting just the words I don't know helps translate more idiomatically than if I put in the whole thing. By the way, have you seen the hilarious spell check "corrctions" on the web. There's even a web site devoted to them. Those of you posting so far aren't into much texting, so you may not have encountered it.

Posted: Fri May 25, 2012 9:03 am
by LukeJavan8
I am not into texting at all.
I see its purposes but not the incessant texting one
finds in restaurants, for instance, where people cannot
sit in each other's presence without conversation for
more than a moment or two. Out comes the cell
which is usually on the table. I find it very rude.
We went from Morse Code to phone, that is
progress. In my opinion, and that is all it is, I find
texting a regression from speaking
I know abbreviations and the like can be found
as far back as the Roman Empire, etc., but it is
not in my interest. So no, I have not seen that
spell check.