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GoogleTranslator is killing my future | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| Giovanni Newbie Spain Joined 4907 days ago 3 posts - 5 votes Studies: English | Message 1 of 63 21 June 2011 at 6:24pm | IP Logged | ||
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I am an undergraduate language student, with the aim to be a Translator and interpreter when I finish my studies. But I see more and more people using online softwares, GoogleTranslators above all, to translate sentences, documents, websites etc. even fellow language students using them to do university work.
Are free Translations Softwares online killing future Translators? Question have your say..... In a university in Barcelona there is a convention to discuss those issues today and tomorrow, go if you are there. more info here: http://www.language-culture-translation.blogspot.com/ 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Cabaire Senior Member Germany Joined 5601 days ago 725 posts - 1352 votes  | Message 2 of 63 21 June 2011 at 6:59pm | IP Logged | ||
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"Those damned motorcars are killing my future" cried the farrier.
4 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Lianne Senior Member Canada thetoweringpile.blog Joined 5117 days ago 284 posts - 410 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Esperanto, Toki Pona, German, French | Message 3 of 63 21 June 2011 at 7:07pm | IP Logged | ||
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Even in Star Trek Enterprise, when the universal translator (way beyond Google Translator) already existed, Hoshi Sato, linguist extraordinaire, was still essential. So you should be good for a few centuries, anyway.
10 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| xees Newbie Joined 5054 days ago 28 posts - 64 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Vietnamese | Message 4 of 63 21 June 2011 at 7:11pm | IP Logged | ||
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They will never translate idioms and slang accurately and that is such a large part of language. I wouldn't worry too much
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| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 5 of 63 21 June 2011 at 7:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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Have you actually tried using one of those translators? There's a huge chance that what you want will come out as gibberish -- or at the most inaccurate.
An English student of mine uses this at work and says it's very unreliable for writing his e-mails. Most words used at the company for emails (require, according to, concerning, included, accept) usually so twisted in some business jargon that they don't make any sense when you run them through the translator. I won't be overly critical of those things. I use them for language study. It's still a great help to business people who don't speak a second language, but it has to be taken with a grain of salt and there has to be a reliable checker (aka person) so that misunderstandings don't occur. That's still a far cry from translation. Being a translator is not just competing with Google, you have to be very advanced. (A lot of translators go into some technical or juristic field -- that's where translators are needed the most.) It's a tough and underpaid profession unless you're really specialized. As many forum members will attest.. Edited by Sunja on 21 June 2011 at 7:19pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| hrhenry Octoglot Senior Member United States languagehopper.blogs Joined 5132 days ago 1871 posts - 3642 votes Speaks: English*, SpanishC2, ItalianC2, Norwegian, Catalan, Galician, Turkish, Portuguese Studies: Polish, Indonesian, Ojibwe | Message 6 of 63 21 June 2011 at 7:30pm | IP Logged | ||
No. Online translators will not replace interpreters, nor will they replace any sort of legal documentation, among many other types of binding documents. As others have asked, have you actually used any of these online translators for anything professional? They don't cut it. They won't cut it for a long time. And frankly, if I were a university professor, I'd be able to spot such translated documents in short order and grade accordingly. R. == Edited by hrhenry on 21 June 2011 at 7:33pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6584 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 7 of 63 21 June 2011 at 8:00pm | IP Logged | ||
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Automated translation is pretty crappy at the moment. I suspect it will become pretty good in the near future—
certainly before your carreer is over if you're just starting it now. However, while I'm pretty sure machines will be able to generate correct and understandable language pretty soon, translation of works of art such as novels and poetry will require more than just that. And as such, the need for translators will probably be diminished, but I don't believe it will disappear completely anytime soon. 7 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Sunja Diglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6087 days ago 2020 posts - 2295 votes 1 sounds Speaks: English*, German Studies: French, Mandarin | Message 8 of 63 21 June 2011 at 8:30pm | IP Logged | ||
Let's not forget translation of "business English". I've seen what runs through the email databases those big companies. whoo, we need people to help decipher through that mess, too! 1 person has voted this message useful |
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