I like to share with you an experience I had. My son in-law wrote me a letter in English and translated it by translator into German. He wrote among others: All is well over here in Charlotte, NC Translator's translation: Alles ist Brunnen (water well) ueber hier in Charlotte, NC. We had our fun with this letter. Heinz Boden, Leesburg, Florida ----- Original Message ----- From: "barbara schnubel" <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2002 10:17 AM Subject: Re: [TRIER-ROOTS-L] Re: TRIER-ROOTS-D Digest V02 #133 Kathy, Don't be upset. I understand perfectly your problem and if I had to read something written in, say chinese, I would also use such a translator to get at least an idea of what the text is about. I know that it is expensive for normal people to hire a translator (being myself a professional translator I am well informed about the costs...:-) However you may also understand that for somebody like me, to see a text like this constitutes an irresistible call to better it... :-) The biggest problem with automated translators is that they cannot take the context into account. They are machines and cannot make the difference between the different meanings a same word can have. This is already not always easy for a translator, so one cannot expect a machine to have more "feeling" for a text than a human being... But way too often those automated translators give a text back that has little to do with the original. You just have to be well aware of this. Barbara ----- Message d'origine ----- De : "kathy metzen" <[email protected]> À : <[email protected]> Envoyé : mercredi 12 juin 2002 14:39 Objet : Re: [TRIER-ROOTS-L] Re: TRIER-ROOTS-D Digest V02 #133 > Frank & Barbara, > I didn't say that it was perfect. I did say that I have had better results using it, instead of other translators. > I don't have the money to hire a translator, or the time to attempt it myself. I have communicated very successfully with several people on another list, who also don't have the time or money, either. We put the message through the translator, check for obvious errors, like the town name being translated, then use a dictionary to finish the translation. > I think that everyone should use the method that works best for them. I simply offered a different translator to Alice & whoever else wanted to try it. > Kathy > ----- Original Message ----- > From: Frank Kuhn > Sent: Tuesday, June 11, 2002 10:54 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [TRIER-ROOTS-L] Re: TRIER-ROOTS-D Digest V02 #133 > > I must agree with Barbara concerning the so called translation > programs that are available on line. My experience has not been at > all good and I will pass along one little tid-bit that came from one > of those programs. > I recently wrote a letter in English and put it into one of the > programs to be translated to German. Beside the usual jibberish which > made little sense at all, I noticed one particular phrase which kept > occurring frequently---"Iron oh". After reading the letter several > times, I finally learned what was happening. The original English > letter made mention, in several instances to "Eisenach" the German > city. The translator broke Eisenach up into two words: > > Eisen---iron and ach---oh > > After that experience, I am now doing the translations myself. My > translations couldn't be any worse. > > Frank Kuhn > > > ==== TRIER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/TRIER-ROOTS.html > to unsubscribeGet more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com > > > ==== TRIER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== > Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to > http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/TRIER-ROOTS.html > to unsubscribe > ==== TRIER-ROOTS Mailing List ==== Going on vacation longer than 4 days? Go to http://lists.rootsweb.com/index/intl/DEU/TRIER-ROOTS.html to unsubscribe