13 replies to this topic

[jaykay]

Usually if you bring up a topic that hasn't been discussed before or not for a while, no matter how obscure it might be. someone has done some research on it. Let's see about this one. The translation programs that most folks on the web board use are really bad. Maybe you can figure out the general sense of what is being discussed, but there are some funny but potentially serious errors.
I am fluent in Spanish but go to my dictionary if I have to write a long reply. I do speak enough to spot the obvious errors in translation. Not everyone can do that. So, here's my question. My wife uses Babbelfish.(sp?) I see that some use Bing. Does anyone know of a program that does a better job? It doesn't have to be free. It just has to work better than the ones we are using now. I can't believe someone hasn't already looked into this.

[Alex]

Try using Google Translate (translate.google.com).

[carib]

To do a translation thru one of this programs is a very tricky proposition. Most of this programs takes the translation verbaten(word by word), base on the meaning of each word but fails to put the message together on a meaningful way that make sense. Also, words have different meanings depending on the country. Sometimes you get a gibberish that make no sense and looks like a joke. You are right, as far as computer translation there is none that harness the intricacies and the essence of a language

[Lexie]

Of all the ones I've come across over the years, the most useful translation program is SpanishDict. Just google it. It's free. It's not perfect, just better in my opinion, than others. The interesting thing is that it gives translations from 3 different programs at the same time.
And it offers some useful Spanish learning.
Lexy

[sparks]

With the Google Tool Bar on your browser you can translate pages without cutting and pasting

or http://translate.google.com/#

[BillClarke]

A friend always raved on about "Babylon" (http://www.babylon.com/) - available as an online service or as a download for use in other programs. I tried it a few times for English-French (and vice versa) but never found it to be any better than Google, Babelfish, or Bing. But perhaps it does better with Spanish.

(Somewhat off-topic: friends and I used to take song lyrics - translate to Japanese then translate the Japanese back into English and share the results to see if anyone could guess the song. Sometimes the results were hilarious and completely unrecognizable from the original. If you're bored and looking for something to do - we called the game "Engrish" which I suppose is a little bit racist.)

[AlanMexicali]

A friend always raved on about "Babylon" (http://www.babylon.com/) - available as an online service or as a download for use in other programs. I tried it a few times for English-French (and vice versa) but never found it to be any better than Google, Babelfish, or Bing. But perhaps it does better with Spanish.

(Somewhat off-topic: friends and I used to take song lyrics - translate to Japanese then translate the Japanese back into English and share the results to see if anyone could guess the song. Sometimes the results were hilarious and completely unrecognizable from the original. If you're bored and looking for something to do)

Ditto on Babylon 9

[PULELEHUA]

Ditto with the above. Context is often the problem. Example: In yesterday's report of the safe house raid in San Nicholas, Google auto-translated "

más dos esposas" as "and two wives." Looked fine except in the context of listing weapons and ammunition found at the site, the term "esposa" referred to handcuffs.

[MtnMama]

Babblefish was good back in the day, but now I think now Google Translate is slightly better than most of the other freeware. I haven't tried Bing because the search engine is such a joke.

[BillClarke]

With the version of IE that I use (IE9) I can highlight text, right click, and tell it to "Translate with Bing" so that's the only reason I use it - it's convenient and I don't know how to switch it to some other option and I am not sufficiently motivated to find out how to.

[AlanMexicali]

Ditto with the above. Context is often the problem. Example: In yesterday's report of the safe house raid in San Nicholas, Google auto-translated "

más dos esposas" as "and two wives." Looked fine except in the context of listing weapons and ammunition found at the site, the term "esposa" referred to handcuffs.

Maybe some "esposas" might be using handcuffs [allegorically speaking]. I wonder if that is how the word came about in a man's profession decades ago?

[jaykay]

I probable should have specified "free" or "bought". Several folks that have my number called me to say that if I wanted to buy a program, Babylon 9 was the best. So, I looked it up and read the reviews. Everybody didn't think it was the best, but most put it in their top five. One interesting comment was that it did better in Spanish than any other language. It scored 90 % correct. Even more interesting (I thought) was that most of the 10% errors were in punctuation. By the way, Babylon has a free translation service, but I don't know the limits of it. At any rate, I am going to buy a copy and have someone bring it down when they are driving back. I think the Aduana really socks it to you on software if it comes in UPS. After I have installed it and used it for a while, I'll start a thread and report on my experience.

[rufus]

These systems seem to translate word for word. I have found out it is better to translate ideas rather than words. Some words have different meaning in different places. Cuerno de chiva translates as goat horn, but we know in our area it means AK-47.

Maybe it is better to have a friend or relative read over your writing before you hit the send button.

Rufus

[ohjoni]

I have tried using Google Translate and had some fun times with my cleaning lady...I typed in to wash the floors and it translated to wash the plants!
Anyways, I have found www.freetranslation.com to be the best as they have 3 different spanis translations, one of them being Mexican Spanish