Online translators. A cautionary tale.

[AJBryant]

This came up in another forum I'm on, and I thought I'd share the info here.

We often talk about the problems with online translation (Google, Yahoo, etc.). The thing is, they usually produce gibberish. Sometimes, however, it's not gibberish. It's just horribly, horribly wrong.

Here's a news story about Seattle Mariners Ichiro's reaction to his 2,000th hit in the US major leagues: http://www.sanspo.com/mlb/news/090908/m ... 005-n1.htm

At one point, the Mariners manager Don Wakamatsu says Ichiro could probably play until he's 50. That's the heading of the section. In the original, ワカマツ監督は５０歳までやれると. So... how does Google translate that? "Director Wakamatsu is 50 years old and fuckable".

Here's the translation via Google:

http://translate.google.com/translate?h ... google.com

So.

Let that be a warning to you all about the use of online translators.


Tony

[phreadom]

Luckily I generally rely on Excite for quick machine translations...

When supervisor [wakamatsu] can do up to 50 years old.

Not great, but certainly better than Google.

[AJBryant]

Unless you're Wakamatsu and trolling for dates.

[phreadom]

Unless you're Wakamatsu and trolling for dates.

I busted out laughing so hard I kind of hurt my throat.

[Harisenbon]

This is the best bit of machine translation I've ever seen.

Thanks for brightening my day, Tony!

[chikara]

The first expedition in Auckland was hit on the head or a coin of the ice and flies ......

Dang those ice and flies in Auckland although, in my experience, ice is more a problem than flies on the other side of the dutch (sic)

Auckland Athletics has a nice ring to it.

[furrykef]

rofl. Even I understood the sentence better than that. (I didn't see Tony's translation next to it until after I already tried to read it.)

I actually was pretty close; the only part I messed up on was that I didn't realize that the と signified a quote, so I was confused on Wakamatsu's role in the sentence.

- Kef

[astaroth]

I didn't realize that the と signified a quote, so I was confused on Wakamatsu's role in the sentence.

Oh yeah me too ... also at first I didn't understand what ワカマツ meant (I tend not to pay attention to names when I read ...)

[clay]

We should create a ranking list for these gems. This one may be #1 for a long time. Of course we would need certified Photoshop-free screenshots since the online translators can always update their code.

[katafei]

Now what fascinates me most is why Tony is using an online translator

[AJBryant]

As I said, this appeared in another forum I'm on. I'm just passing along the translation-fail goodness.

[Oracle]

Hilarious

In that case I think everyone will get a kick out of this site ( if it hasn't been showcased here before)

http://translationparty.com/

It bounces translations back and forth between English and Japanese using the google translate service..
Really shows how bad online translators can be!

[astaroth]

This reminds me of an experiment Moravia, an Italian poet, once tried: he wrote a poem and submitted to a translator who then had to send to another translator (of a third different language) and so on for a twenty or so passages until the last translation was to be back to Italian.
At the end they compared the original with the final version and ... two completely different poems, not only in how they were written but also in the meaning.

[Kennymon]

I hope this doesn't count as spam - I just had to post this here.


http://translationparty.com/#4335629
Phrase: "I was not going to say that this is completely hilarious."


Then I realized there should be a "was" instead of "is", I tried again and out came this:


http://translationparty.com/#4335662
Phrase: "I was not going to say that this was completely hilarious."


The latter just had me choking on my slice of toast from laughing. I mean, how on earth...?!