Language translation sites need a lot of work
A few days ago I received an email written in German. Back in my youth, I had a certain proficiency with the language so I sort of understood the email. But after years of disuse my German is rather limited so I wasn’t sure of some of it. Then I had the bright idea of getting the email translated on the Web. There are a number of free services that claim they will translate text in various foreign languages. So you enter the text in German and out comes the English version. I tried Yahoo Babelfish, Google Language Tools, and several others. The results were, to put it mildly, disappointing. I did find the Web useful for looking up some German words I did not know so I got the email figured out. But it is clear that German syntax and grammar are as much a mystery to the translation services as they are to American students in beginning German language classes.
Apropos of the season, I then asked Google to translate the first verse of the Christmas song Stille Nacht (Silent Night). It is written in very simple language so it’s not as if I was throwing Goethe or Kant at it. Here’s the results:
Silent night, holy night,
All is calm, lonely watches
Only the trusted traveler sacrosanct.
Holder boy in curly hair,
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Sleep in heavenly peace!
Just to remind you, the usual translation is:
Silent night, holy night
All is calm all is bright
‘Round yon virgin Mother and Child
Holy infant so tender and mild
Sleep in heavenly peace
Sleep in heavenly peace
Oh well, Google got the first and last lines right.
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I’m actually surprised that foreign tech bloggers and readers don’t post more frequently about using language translation sites and whether they use them or prefer their own translation abilities. Just a quick comparison of the translation sites would be nice. I haven’t come across any of these posts – has anyone?