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Google Translate to learn a language? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Learning Techniques, Methods & Strategies |  | |
| ALS Senior Member United States Joined 5796 days ago 104 posts - 131 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Norwegian, Finnish, Russian | Message 1 of 30 24 February 2010 at 5:43pm | IP Logged | ||
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I was really interested in the 10,000 Sentences method of learning a language, but when I tried it it was extremely tedious. Having to look up every single word in a dictionary made it extremely slow and I really didn't enjoy it, especially when I couldn't find a word and had to try many different websites until I got it.
But what about learning a language using the 10,000 sentence method and Google Translate to easily translate sentences into your native language? It seems like it would be a big benefit because it would already be presented in a way that you understand, instead of in an "in-between" language format that could be interpreted in different ways. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| datsunking1 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5577 days ago 1014 posts - 1533 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: German, Russian, Dutch, French | Message 2 of 30 24 February 2010 at 5:52pm | IP Logged | ||
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Google translation isn't always correct. It's closer to a real translation than other programs, but still not perfect. I think it's great for looking up words or small things, but by no means would I use it as a translator for full sentences. :D
Idioms and Colloquialisms throw Google translate a complete curve. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Splog Diglot Senior Member Czech Republic anthonylauder.c Joined 5661 days ago 1062 posts - 3263 votes Speaks: English*, Czech Studies: Mandarin | Message 3 of 30 24 February 2010 at 5:58pm | IP Logged | ||
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If it works for you, then great, but I would caution you about two things:
1: Some of the Google translations are very poor (if not completely wrong). They are certainly getting better over time, but even so they are far from being what you expect in many cases. I certainly wouldn't want the current level of translation as a basis for my language study. 2: An important part of the "10,000 Sentences method" is that you mine the sentences over time as you come across those that particularly interest you. So, the process of wading through masses of authentic native material will lead you to sentences that stand out as worthy of putting into your collection. The amount of time this takes is considerable compared to the short time it takes to translate an interesting sentence. Look at it this way: imagine you spend two hours a day reading authentic material, another hour listening to podcasts, and another two watching TV and movies. From this five hours, you may mine, say, 20 sentences that really strike you as interesting. Even if it takes you half an hour to translate them and add them to your collection it is not much time. Plus, that half hour may actually prove to be a useful part of the process (since you have to think hard about the sentences, and put effort into finding out their meaning). In short, 10,000 sentences is part of an immersion experience - that requires many hours or dedication each day, with your list of mined sentences not being grabbed as fast as possible (or, worse, borrowed) but rather growing slowly over time to match your learning. The first few sentences will be very simple (trivial in fact) and their complexity will grow with you. Trying to get the 10,000 sentences quickly - or simply making them the major part of your study effort - misses the major thrust of the method, which is immersion and growth. Edited by Splog on 24 February 2010 at 6:00pm 8 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| GREGORG4000 Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 5515 days ago 307 posts - 479 votes Speaks: English*, Finnish Studies: Japanese, Korean, Amharic, French | Message 4 of 30 24 February 2010 at 6:19pm | IP Logged | ||
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Google Translate can mess up pretty simple things (try translating "I jog." from English to German for example) Edited by GREGORG4000 on 24 February 2010 at 6:19pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6695 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 5 of 30 24 February 2010 at 6:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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True, Google does mess up even the simplest things. Which is a good reason for not using it to translate from your base language to your target language,but only in the other direction where you mostly can see the errors. But it doesn't try to make free, literary and therefore misleading translations, and it can make bilinguals out of any internet page (see my Guide to learning languages,part 2). So with all its defects I consider it a very useful tool. Edited by Iversen on 24 February 2010 at 6:37pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| kmart Senior Member Australia Joined 6116 days ago 194 posts - 400 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Italian | Message 6 of 30 24 February 2010 at 11:22pm | IP Logged | ||
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There are lots of places you can mine sentences from, with the translations already included - your dictionary, textbooks, bilingual novels, subtitles on movies, transcripts from Assimil, news and other podcasts sometimes have transcripts. I'm way too lazy to spend my time translating, so I get all my sentences the easy way, looking for new vocabulary, difficult verb constructions (eg subjunctive, groan), commonly-used idioms, etc.
I don't have 5 hours a day available to study, so I need value for my time, and why waste it translating when there are already hundreds of thousands of sentences out there already done for me? I can mine 20 sentences in a few minutes, often using copy/paste instead of typing, and that leaves me more time to actually study them. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| tommus Senior Member CanadaRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5858 days ago 979 posts - 1688 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Dutch, French, Esperanto, German, Spanish | Message 7 of 30 25 February 2010 at 12:17am | IP Logged | ||
I agree with you about getting your sentences from a variety of sources. But I think the best place to get the sentences is from material you find interesting, preferably from your daily reading. Use Google Translate, if necessary, to translate to your native language to speed understanding. But I recommend not to do very fast copy/paste just to add many sentences quickly. Take the time to fully understand the sentence in the full context of your interesting reading. Not only will that make it easier to understand in the original context, but it will help you remember the context many months later. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| cathrynm Senior Member United States junglevision.co Joined 6117 days ago 910 posts - 1232 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Japanese, Finnish | Message 8 of 30 25 February 2010 at 12:59am | IP Logged | ||
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I feel like I'm better off suffering through with a dictionary and grammar book, going word by word. I find with effort this is possible, even with Finnish at the beginner level. I don't get through a whole lot of text this way, one sentence alone is a huge deal, but I think it is helping me learn the grammar. With Google Translate even when the translation is close enough, I don't even know what the root words are, I don't know what case anything is, I don't feel like I'm learning anything.
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