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Google translate, a possible revolution. | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : General discussion |  | |
| Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4735 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes  Studies: German | Message 1 of 34 07 March 2013 at 8:51pm | IP Logged | ||
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Alright this is partially about learning techniques but also about the possible effect
this technique will have on language overall. So here goes, I've started using it to create my own language learning content. Basically I record a google translate phrase, and put it randomly on my mp3 player. I simply draw whatever comes up and this becomes my exercise. My question is could this possibly level the playing field for those that can't afford content. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| lingoleng Senior Member Germany Joined 5299 days ago 605 posts - 1290 votes | Message 2 of 34 07 March 2013 at 9:14pm | IP Logged | ||
Google is a useful tool if you don't understand a sentence in your L2 and have it translated to your native language. This way you get the gist of what is said and won't be affected too much by the mistakes google translate makes. The other way round - and this is what you suggest, if I am not mistaken - it is not good. You will not notice the terrible mistakes in your L2. But in general the internet has indeed levelled the playing field, never before have there been so many free resources and tools available, imo this is certainly an amazing revolution for language learners. Edited by lingoleng on 07 March 2013 at 9:16pm 13 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| DiegoESP Diglot Newbie United States es.yahoo.com Joined 4287 days ago 2 posts - 7 votes Speaks: English*, Arabic (classical) Studies: Spanish | Message 3 of 34 07 March 2013 at 9:18pm | IP Logged | ||
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Don't translate SENTENCES into Google Translate. It doesn't translate accurately. Single
words are usually okay but not too many or it will not translate properly. 6 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5767 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 4 of 34 07 March 2013 at 9:29pm | IP Logged | ||
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Oh, please do that and keep us updated with weekly youtube videos of your progress. Edited by Bao on 07 March 2013 at 9:30pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Thor1987 Groupie Canada Joined 4735 days ago 65 posts - 84 votes Studies: German | Message 5 of 34 07 March 2013 at 9:32pm | IP Logged | ||
meh I think once you play with it a bit you figure out how to get around any errors. In fact this aspect is an exercise in its self. Anyhow sorry for not being clear, but the real benefit of it from my perspective is having that spoken element, being able to hear a language, while your doing a written study. It's this mix, of spoken and written that I find so useful. Typically you cannot mix the two. Spoken has to be specifically language tapes, or just regular videos. With regular media, your unable to choose specific sentences that relate to your verb/noun/grammar drills etc. And obviously languages tapes have a very limited range due to cost. With google translate you have unlimited options for spoken phrases, just as you have in the written form. Edit: I guess my main point is that one is able to go directly from a static training method, to one that is truly dynamic. Edited by Thor1987 on 07 March 2013 at 9:36pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Chung Diglot Senior Member Joined 7157 days ago 4228 posts - 8259 votes 20 sounds Speaks: English*, French Studies: Polish, Slovak, Uzbek, Turkish, Korean, Finnish | Message 6 of 34 07 March 2013 at 10:08pm | IP Logged | ||
This isn't as good as you as it think it is, and I'm highly skeptical that this would help "level the playing field" as the cliché goes (and if I were you, I wouldn't start sluffing off concerns about using Google Translate in learning foreign languages with "meh...") For a laugh, I've replayed grammatical Finnish sentences in Google Translate and they sound off (e.g. click here for an example sentence from Finnish Wikipedia). Part of the problem is that Google Translate seems to draw on an inventory of words that's been recorded more or less in isolation and so the audio output of Google Translate makes it sound more like a synthesized announcement that you'd hear in a second-rate PA system at a railroad station or a first generation answering machine than someone's spontaenous speech. One of the worse renditions comes from Google Translate reading Vietnamese (e.g. here's a sample of a sentence taken from Vietnamese Wikipedia). Therefore I wouldn't be trying to imitate or train my ear using that voice from Google Translate unless you genuinely want to sound like or listen for human voices that sound like a synthesizer. 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| MultipackCan Newbie Ireland Joined 4285 days ago 20 posts - 28 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Esperanto | Message 7 of 34 07 March 2013 at 10:49pm | IP Logged | ||
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Depends what language you're learning, some are definitely better than others, but
overall it's not a good idea. 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Serpent Octoglot Senior Member Russian Federation serpent-849.livejour Joined 6598 days ago 9753 posts - 15779 votes 4 sounds Speaks: Russian*, English, FinnishC1, Latin, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese Studies: Danish, Romanian, Polish, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Croatian, Slovenian, Catalan, Czech, Galician, Dutch, Swedish | Message 8 of 34 07 March 2013 at 11:29pm | IP Logged | ||
Instead, why not use a decent speech synthesizer? Just find correct sentences and paste them. Or type them up yourself for extra memorization. At least learn the English pronouns before googletranslating phrases that contain them;) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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