Google Translate

[ian-s]

Hi all

I have been using MS Visual Studio Express to do some web development. A last minute request for Multilanguage support has caused be to look at the Google translate options.

Do any non-English speaking members here use Google translate, stand alone or on whole web sites? How would you rate it?

I can't understanding my oldest daughters posts on facebook when she writes in Norwegian, after translating via Google, I usually still don't understand. Some tests translating to Chinese and back give amusing results.

It also doesn't work with Flash content (no issue for me) or aspx forms (bit of a problem).
I have a fall back strategy which involves getting form labels/headings etc translated by native speakers and applying them from xml to the dom directly. More work but probably better as the form involved could be considered a legal document.

[nobody]

I used Google translate just for amusement a while ago. I haven't looked at it lately, but I'm sure it has a long way to go. I wouldn't use it for anything serious.

[Antimon]

I use it all the time. I work in Denmark, where the language is almost like swedish, but some words are different. Instead of pestering the people I work with with confusing questions about what words or phrases mean, google translate (with some help from the old grey cells) gets the job done. Every now and then some dutch electro musician writes something that looks interesting, or a chinese friend. It doesn't to perfect translations, but gives you an understanding. The world gets smaller.

[nobody]

It's far from perfect. Sometimes you get "translations" from whatever to English that read "He is like to be your batteries with the ongoing of the proceedings".

It seems like it's a literal lookup, rather than a more complicated program that matches idioms between languages and stuff like that. "You are to stop howling at the moon and take your meat out of here" vs. "Quit whining and get lost".

That makes me wonder how well a personality selection would work. That is, you can choose what kind of personality should translate for you. A stuck up posh person, a street kid, or whatever, resulting in various attitudes on the same phrase. "Shut the fuck up and scram!" vs. "We do not tolerate this kind of attitude. Please leave!"

[pyrosonic]

My hovercraft is full of eels.

[nobody]