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GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Greg Utas1-Dec-20 10:22
professionalGreg Utas1-Dec-20 10:22 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
honey the codewitch1-Dec-20 13:27
mvahoney the codewitch1-Dec-20 13:27 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Slacker0071-Dec-20 3:06
professionalSlacker0071-Dec-20 3:06 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
CodeWraith1-Dec-20 3:36
CodeWraith1-Dec-20 3:36 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Gerry Schmitz1-Dec-20 5:16
mveGerry Schmitz1-Dec-20 5:16 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Greg Utas1-Dec-20 10:24
professionalGreg Utas1-Dec-20 10:24 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Gerry Schmitz1-Dec-20 18:19
mveGerry Schmitz1-Dec-20 18:19 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
trønderen1-Dec-20 5:58
trønderen1-Dec-20 5:58 
Even though Google Translate may be good at constructing grammatically correct phrases in English,
translating to other languages than English is clearly inferior.

Translating from one non-English language to another non-English language may be just crazy. It seems to translate from the source language, possibly making a lot of misunderstandings, to English, and then, possibly running into ambiguities in the English language, translating the it from there to the destination language.

To illustrate by a classic example (this one has been corrected now): Norwegian and Swedish are very close languages; we usually understand each other without any 'translation'. But earlier, Norwegian 'postoppkrav' was translated to Swedish 'TORSK', which makes no sense at all. It went this way: 'postoppkrav' is Norwegian for 'Charge on delivery', so it was translated to English 'COD'. Then this was interpreted, not as the abbreviation, but referring to codfish, which in Swedish is 'torsk'. Since the English input was in uppercase, the Swedish translation was uppercased, too.

I receive a lot of spam mail, lots of it from Asian or East European sources, that has made a clumsy attempt to market themselves by translating to Norwegian. Most of the subject lines (I rarely go beyond that) make no sense at all in Norwegian, unless I try to back-translate it to English. Then it suddenly makes sense, when I consider all the alternate meanings of the English words!

When I need to access a text in a language I do not master, I have given up translating it to Norwegian - it goes to English, and usually makes sense. Nevertheless, I often make a final check asking for the Norwegian version, and get something that may be total gibberish. At least in part.

So you English (only) speakers: Continue non-learning other languages, if that is your preference. But if you write something aimed at non-native English speakers, please do not use Google Translate to send away something in a language you do not master! If you cannot afford to have it properly translated (or at least quality checked) by someone who fully masters the target language, rather send your text in English, untranslated!
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Greg Utas1-Dec-20 10:31
professionalGreg Utas1-Dec-20 10:31 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Nelek1-Dec-20 11:33
protectorNelek1-Dec-20 11:33 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
Sander Rossel1-Dec-20 6:07
professionalSander Rossel1-Dec-20 6:07 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
honey the codewitch1-Dec-20 6:11
mvahoney the codewitch1-Dec-20 6:11 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
  Forogar  1-Dec-20 7:20
professional  Forogar  1-Dec-20 7:20 
GeneralRe: Google translate has gotten scary good Pin
honey the codewitch1-Dec-20 7:58
mvahoney the codewitch1-Dec-20 7:58 
GeneralWSO CCC OTD 2020-12-01 Pin
OriginalGriff30-Nov-20 21:47
mveOriginalGriff30-Nov-20 21:47 
GeneralRe: WSO CCC OTD 2020-12-01 Pin
Greg Utas1-Dec-20 1:30
professionalGreg Utas1-Dec-20 1:30 
GeneralRe: WSO CCC OTD 2020-12-01 - we have a winner! Pin
OriginalGriff1-Dec-20 1:38
mveOriginalGriff1-Dec-20 1:38 
GeneralRe: WSO CCC OTD 2020-12-01 - we have a winner! Pin
Greg Utas1-Dec-20 2:00
professionalGreg Utas1-Dec-20 2:00 
GeneralRe: WSO CCC OTD 2020-12-01 - we have a winner! Pin
OriginalGriff1-Dec-20 2:24
mveOriginalGriff1-Dec-20 2:24 
GeneralThe new IoT? Pin
Daniel Pfeffer30-Nov-20 20:01
professionalDaniel Pfeffer30-Nov-20 20:01 
GeneralRe: The new IoT? Pin
GuyThiebaut30-Nov-20 20:11
professionalGuyThiebaut30-Nov-20 20:11 
GeneralRe: The new IoT? Pin
Daniel Pfeffer30-Nov-20 20:28
professionalDaniel Pfeffer30-Nov-20 20:28 
GeneralRe: The new IoT? Pin
honey the codewitch30-Nov-20 21:44
mvahoney the codewitch30-Nov-20 21:44 
GeneralRe: The new IoT? Pin
OriginalGriff30-Nov-20 21:49
mveOriginalGriff30-Nov-20 21:49 
GeneralRe: The new IoT? Pin
honey the codewitch30-Nov-20 21:55
mvahoney the codewitch30-Nov-20 21:55 

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