Saturday, March 05, 2005
Earlier in the week, I mentioned a website, Babelfish that can translate text to different languages. I used it (keeping in mind the comments from Jeffraham and Steve Bates that it can corrupt the text) and I still found it useful. It helps that I can just slap the text in there and viola, can get the gist of what my Spanish blog friends are saying. I visited Liky's blog and she had a post about visiting the eye doctor. I wrote a comment on her page in English, I converted it to Spanish, then back to English.
My original comment:
Too much computer can cause eye strain. I hope with some rest to your eyes, it will abate. By the way, thank you for the Alta-vista link - I love it!
Spanish Conversion:
Demasiada computadora puede causar la tensión del ojo. Espero con un cierto resto a sus ojos, él disminuiré. ¡A propósito, gracias por el acoplamiento de Alta-Vista - amor de I él!
Spanish converted back to English:
Too much computer can cause the tension of the eye. I wait for with a certain rest its eyes, he I will diminish. To intention, thanks for the connection of High-Vista - love of I he!
My original comment:
Too much computer can cause eye strain. I hope with some rest to your eyes, it will abate. By the way, thank you for the Alta-vista link - I love it!
Spanish Conversion:
Demasiada computadora puede causar la tensión del ojo. Espero con un cierto resto a sus ojos, él disminuiré. ¡A propósito, gracias por el acoplamiento de Alta-Vista - amor de I él!
Spanish converted back to English:
Too much computer can cause the tension of the eye. I wait for with a certain rest its eyes, he I will diminish. To intention, thanks for the connection of High-Vista - love of I he!
Comments:
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Heh - V, that is pretty funny. As I said, though, this does help me figure out what my friends are saying... to a point.
I am reminded of a good friend of my dad's, who was fond of telling a story about an electronic English-Russian translator, which was tested in the same way, using the phrases "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak", and "Out of sight, out of mind."
Supposedly the machine came back with "The wine is good, but the meat is poor", and "Blind idiot."
Supposedly the machine came back with "The wine is good, but the meat is poor", and "Blind idiot."
I love BableFish. I've learned how to manipulate it to get it to say what I want it to. First I put in what I want to say in English. Have it translate it into the other language. Then I take that put it in and have it translated back into English. From that I'm able to figure out how to alter it so that I get what I want to say. Sometimes it will take a couple of translations but it generally works pretty well.
I don't think even a verbal translator can make an EXACT translation from one language to another.
I don't think even a verbal translator can make an EXACT translation from one language to another.
eli - um, didn't I just tell that same story on OWL's site, substituting German for Russian? I'm sure it's apocryphal, either way.
wanda - that's a great idea on how to use BabelFish. Perhaps I am underestimating its utility; one just has to be as clever as you have been in using it.
But don't underestimate human translators. I dated an English/Spanish courtroom translator (very necessary in Texas) for a while; she developed the skill of comprehending the essence of statements by the witness and/or the attorneys very quickly, and rendering it in Spanish or English as needed. (She was also stressed to the max. It's not a job I would undertake.) Machines can't do that, at least not yet... it is my opinion that someday they will be able to do so.
I stand by my advice... don't use the output of BabelFish directly. Let a human edit the results, or do what wanda does.
The Yellow Doggerel Democrat
wanda - that's a great idea on how to use BabelFish. Perhaps I am underestimating its utility; one just has to be as clever as you have been in using it.
But don't underestimate human translators. I dated an English/Spanish courtroom translator (very necessary in Texas) for a while; she developed the skill of comprehending the essence of statements by the witness and/or the attorneys very quickly, and rendering it in Spanish or English as needed. (She was also stressed to the max. It's not a job I would undertake.) Machines can't do that, at least not yet... it is my opinion that someday they will be able to do so.
I stand by my advice... don't use the output of BabelFish directly. Let a human edit the results, or do what wanda does.
The Yellow Doggerel Democrat
Excellent advice, all! It is a fun utility. I went to several other Spanish sites and translated them to English. They were semi-coherent:) I plan to run one of those French articles through, too.
It gets better. A guy set up a program to translate a given paragraph through all the Babelfish languages in sequence before returning to English. If you include Chinese, Japanese and Korean, you get some interesting results. Apparently the Korean Babelfish can't distinguish between the word for 'tea' and the word for 'car' when translated out of either Chinese or Japanese.
# posted by 
: Monday, March 07, 2005 2:27:00 PM
: Monday, March 07, 2005 2:27:00 PM
Thealogie-ha - have you tried that? I'm not up to it right now, but certainly will do later when my brain is functioning properly:)
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