Translating Languages
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MidwestLimey wrote:
But to be fair it translated Hitler hat nur einen Hoden Without any issues ...
did you try to translate it back to the origin?
/* I can C */ // or !C Yusuf
Yep German->English->German without entropy. Practicle, obviously :D
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
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I'll add to what Bert said about using human translation, make sure your translator is a native speaker in the destination language, just being reasonably fluent isn't enough to avoid occasional weird errors and idiomatic weirdness that will immediately jump out at native readers.
You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always get punched out when I reach 4.... -- El Corazon
Especially if the translation is technical; we (programmers) have our own slangs that sometimes must be translated into especial words. I remember having this software installed on my computer that used to display this message: "la aplicación no está conectada a la telaraña" ("the application is not connected to the web") where they translated "web" literaly to "telaraña": spider web.
Stupidity is an International Association - Enrique Jardiel Poncela
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Surely working for a French-Canadian company, you have in-company resources for this? No one at the company speaks québécois?
Thanks everyone for replying - I understand that the online translators are not very good, I've done the english-french-english thing to see what pops out. I just wondered if the commercial packages might be a little better but I guess not. Just goes to show though with all the software brains out there its still not possible to write anything that comes close to beating a human translator! We are a small company so our in-house resources are limited - looks like it will have to be an external translator, I guess there are people out there who specialise in technical translations?
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
If it is English/French/German, you really need to hire a Belgian :-) In my previous job, which was in systems engineering for a major US networking gear manufacturer, one of our lead engineers was a Belgian. He would be on all our conference calls with carriers like T-Mobile, BT, KPN (Dutch is a bonus). I also worked with another Belgian on a project involving KPN, ditto - zero communication issues. Do the schools teach these languages ? It is somewhat like India, where there are many who have command over multiple languages (with different scripts). The difference is there is no technical activity happening in any of those languages. Another difference is many Indians have command of two languages, very rarely three or more.
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I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
And what language was that written in? :P
“Time and space can be a bitch.” –Gushie, Quantum Leap {o,o}.oO( Looking for a great RSS reader? Try FeedBeast! ) |)””’) Built with home-grown CodeProject components! -”-”-
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
I find the easiest way to test translation software is to get a reasonably sized block of text and translate it one way e.g. English to French, then send the result back the opposite way and compare the original with the result - it is often hilarious! Your original:
As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.Translated both ways by Google:Like a englishman working for a French-Canadian society the problem of translation of documents faces here and there. Usually I get to bring with Google and a dictionary, but now, after a long, I finally developing a product of french documentation that must be translated in french. As I was wondering about this issue, I received an unsolicited email offering ECTACO machine translation software! Dell have developed reading software for their laptops mind? Seriously anyone who has had experience type of software? I also saw a similar software by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any information to the end user, all would be appreciated.==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
I've been using SYSTRAN for more than two years for translating French documents into English. With absolute no knowledge in French, I would rate the translation quality as "somewhat understandable". What does that mean? If you need to translate the document to a language from a language you don't understand into language that you do, in order to understand the document, you can do that. The translated text would be far from good, but with some effort you'll get what the author meant. If you need an official document, after systran's translation you'll have to go through it a couple of times, to make (both grammatical and syntactical) corrections. If you need it to translate a document into a language you don't understand... hire someone who knows both languages :)
A buffalo soldier, a dread-like rasta !
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I've been using SYSTRAN for more than two years for translating French documents into English. With absolute no knowledge in French, I would rate the translation quality as "somewhat understandable". What does that mean? If you need to translate the document to a language from a language you don't understand into language that you do, in order to understand the document, you can do that. The translated text would be far from good, but with some effort you'll get what the author meant. If you need an official document, after systran's translation you'll have to go through it a couple of times, to make (both grammatical and syntactical) corrections. If you need it to translate a document into a language you don't understand... hire someone who knows both languages :)
A buffalo soldier, a dread-like rasta !
So its possible then to reduce the load on the unfortunate employee who gets the job of translating the document by machine translating and then proof reading. That might help.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
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Get a human translator period. I use to work for a large company. They outsourced English-Chinese translation to a cheap firm. Few years back we had a Chinese lady (very good developer) joined our group. When she saw the translation, she could not hold off her laughter. Some of the sentences did not make any sense and some words were slangs. Make sure to get a good human translate. Try this for a size. Take an English phrase pass it through any online translator then back to English and what you get is garbage. :wtf:
/* I can C */ // or !C Yusuf
I worked in Europe for a while in a group of multi-linguals. For fun, when I got bored, I would ask one to translate something from American to German, then take it to another to translate it from German to French, then French to Arabic, Arabic back to American. It was always amusing and sometimes hilarious - like when you were little and played 'telephone' and compared the original sentence to the ending one after it had been whispered around the room. :laugh: ;)
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And what language was that written in? :P
“Time and space can be a bitch.” –Gushie, Quantum Leap {o,o}.oO( Looking for a great RSS reader? Try FeedBeast! ) |)””’) Built with home-grown CodeProject components! -”-”-
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So its possible then to reduce the load on the unfortunate employee who gets the job of translating the document by machine translating and then proof reading. That might help.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
Nah. Probably better to let them do the whole document. The software messes up so much it's unreal. My Spanish teacher worked on the side as a translator, and was able to do it rapidly. With all the errors these machines make, should you really trust them with *anything* your business depends on? Hire a human. We kick digital a$$!
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Nah. Probably better to let them do the whole document. The software messes up so much it's unreal. My Spanish teacher worked on the side as a translator, and was able to do it rapidly. With all the errors these machines make, should you really trust them with *anything* your business depends on? Hire a human. We kick digital a$$!
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Just goes to show that despite all the technology at our disposal its still no match for the lump of meat between our ears!!
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
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And what language was that written in? :P
“Time and space can be a bitch.” –Gushie, Quantum Leap {o,o}.oO( Looking for a great RSS reader? Try FeedBeast! ) |)””’) Built with home-grown CodeProject components! -”-”-
Originally Klingon
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
My dad is a translation professor who was working at a University in Montreal. He's recently been job hunting for a full professorship and been interviewed at a few universities and their big budget item that they are getting all the grant money for is machine translation development and research. I've personally been interested in the subject as well for some time and we discuss it often. Between the two of us we've come to the conclusion that the state of the art right now is entirely useless for serious purposes and it looks very unlikely that it will ever be a working proposition until full artificial intelligence is realized. We've had our applications UI translated into several languages and there are plenty of services that will do it with human translators relatively cheaply online so it's entirely unnecessary to go the deeply flawed machine translation route.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy
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I find the easiest way to test translation software is to get a reasonably sized block of text and translate it one way e.g. English to French, then send the result back the opposite way and compare the original with the result - it is often hilarious! Your original:
As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.Translated both ways by Google:Like a englishman working for a French-Canadian society the problem of translation of documents faces here and there. Usually I get to bring with Google and a dictionary, but now, after a long, I finally developing a product of french documentation that must be translated in french. As I was wondering about this issue, I received an unsolicited email offering ECTACO machine translation software! Dell have developed reading software for their laptops mind? Seriously anyone who has had experience type of software? I also saw a similar software by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any information to the end user, all would be appreciated.==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
Actually they seem to have come a long way since the last time I tried that. Still very bad, but semi understandable if all you care about is conveying the information somehow and not worried about how professional it is.
"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying." - David Ogilvy
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Originally Klingon
I'm largely language agnostic
After a while they all bug me :doh:
Wow, how many intermediate languages did you need to pass through to turn Shakespeare into something that? :laugh:
You know, every time I tried to win a bar-bet about being able to count to 1000 using my fingers I always got punched out when I reached 4.... -- El Corazon
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I find the easiest way to test translation software is to get a reasonably sized block of text and translate it one way e.g. English to French, then send the result back the opposite way and compare the original with the result - it is often hilarious! Your original:
As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.Translated both ways by Google:Like a englishman working for a French-Canadian society the problem of translation of documents faces here and there. Usually I get to bring with Google and a dictionary, but now, after a long, I finally developing a product of french documentation that must be translated in french. As I was wondering about this issue, I received an unsolicited email offering ECTACO machine translation software! Dell have developed reading software for their laptops mind? Seriously anyone who has had experience type of software? I also saw a similar software by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any information to the end user, all would be appreciated.==================================== Transvestites - Roberts in Disguise! ====================================
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As an englishman working for a French-Canadian company the problem of translating documents comes up now and again. Usually I get by with Google translate and a dictionary but now after a long development I finally have a product with documentation in English that needs to be translated into French. As I wondered about this problem I received an unsolicited email from ECTACO offering automatic translation software!! Have Dell been developing mind reading software for their laptops? Seriously has anyone had any experience with kind of software? I have also seen similar sofware by SYSTRAN who claim to translate documents for governments and large corporations. Any info from an end user at all would be appreciated.
Apathy Rules - I suppose...
Its not the things you fear that come to get you but all the things that you don't expect
As a gringo working in Mexico, I have a similar problem. I have tried out most of the online & commercial packages. None are really satisfactory, but the best (according to the spanish speakers that looked at the output) is: http://imtranslator.com/default.asp It does a reverse translation so you can see how garbled the message becomes.