Google Translate introduces new input tools

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Ikram Mahyuddin
Ikram Mahyuddin  Identity Verified
Индонезия
Local time: 01:20
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => индонезийский
+ ...
It's a happy news Feb 10, 2013

Like it or not, Google Translate helps many people around the world in finding translations of words. Therefore, if it has new input tools, it will help many more people, although more translators will possibly regard it a threat, too.

 
Angelique Blommaert
Angelique Blommaert  Identity Verified
Нидерланды
Local time: 19:20
немецкий => голландский
+ ...
Not reliable Feb 10, 2013

I don´t think one should rely on Google Translate. Every user can give input...wrong input as well!

 
Ikram Mahyuddin
Ikram Mahyuddin  Identity Verified
Индонезия
Local time: 01:20
Член ProZ.com c 2006
английский => индонезийский
+ ...
Yes, not reliable. Feb 10, 2013

I admit that GT is not reliable, but it sometimes helps. You should check the translations it provides.

[Edited at 2013-02-10 14:43 GMT]


 
Tom Pesch
Tom Pesch  Identity Verified
Финляндия
Local time: 20:20
английский => финский
not a threat Feb 10, 2013

Google Translator is not a threat to any professional translator. People use it more like an online dictionary than a translation service. I actually don't even consider it a reliable dictionary.

[Edited at 2013-02-10 16:18 GMT]


 
neilmac
neilmac
Испания
Local time: 19:20
испанский => английский
+ ...
What, me worry? Feb 10, 2013

Tom Pesch wrote:

Google Translator is not a threat to any professional translator. People use it more like an online dictionary than a translation service. I actually don't even consider it a reliable dictionary.

[Edited at 2013-02-10 16:18 GMT]


I agree. Nevertheless, the tool sounds interesting, as it seems will be quicker to write things in Russian cyrillic without changing keyboards and it will be handy for Chinese and similar languages too.

[Edited at 2013-02-10 18:34 GMT]


 
kok seng loh
kok seng loh
Local time: 02:20
китайский => английский
+ ...
Google translator Feb 11, 2013

No, I do not even consider Google translator a translator. Presently, it is turning out crap. Maybe in the future it will be improved but for now, if you use it for your translation jobs, there will be much to grieve and woe betide the translator.

I pasted Chinese stuff into it and make it translate into English. So far, it is crappy although you can still glean some ideas about the Chinese stuff and I must warn that sometimes even these ideas are wrong because the translation is mi
... See more
No, I do not even consider Google translator a translator. Presently, it is turning out crap. Maybe in the future it will be improved but for now, if you use it for your translation jobs, there will be much to grieve and woe betide the translator.

I pasted Chinese stuff into it and make it translate into English. So far, it is crappy although you can still glean some ideas about the Chinese stuff and I must warn that sometimes even these ideas are wrong because the translation is misleading or even wrong.
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Tomoyuki Kono
Tomoyuki Kono  Identity Verified
Великобритания
Local time: 18:20
Член ProZ.com c 2010
английский => японский
+ ...
Google translator Feb 11, 2013

kok seng loh wrote:

No, I do not even consider Google translator a translator. Presently, it is turning out crap. Maybe in the future it will be improved but for now, if you use it for your translation jobs, there will be much to grieve and woe betide the translator.



I don't think anyone is advocating/adopting Google Translate for professional translation jobs. Warning/criticising people of doing so (as it happens so often here that it's now turned into a cliché) when no one actually seems to be doing it is something of a red herring. The warning is appropriate for someone who is using GT to get a Sanskrit translation of their favourite proverb so that they can have it tattooed. In that case the mistake is for life!

For personal use, I think GT has many advantages. It has allowed me to get a gist of what my Brazilian friend was saying on Facebook; on another occasion it allowed me to order an academic book published in Poland from a Polish bookshop. On both occasions, I would not have bothered had it not been for GT.


 
Ambrose Li
Ambrose Li  Identity Verified
Канада
Local time: 13:20
английский
+ ...
Input methods Feb 12, 2013

Since the article really talks only about input methods, whether Google Translate is reliable or not isn’t really relevant.

That said, I just checked it out and if I tried to input Chinese, I am offered four input methods (or just two, depending on how you count):
1. three varieties of pinyin, and
2. Wubi

That means people who don’t speak Mandarin and have never had any training in Wubi (which is btw usable only for simplified Chinese) is still left in the col
... See more
Since the article really talks only about input methods, whether Google Translate is reliable or not isn’t really relevant.

That said, I just checked it out and if I tried to input Chinese, I am offered four input methods (or just two, depending on how you count):
1. three varieties of pinyin, and
2. Wubi

That means people who don’t speak Mandarin and have never had any training in Wubi (which is btw usable only for simplified Chinese) is still left in the cold.

From an accessibility point of view, this really isn’t doing much. In my city’s public libraries, computers are already pre-installed with the pinyin IME, but only the pinyin IME, so people who can’t type pinyin can’t type Chinese there. With Google Translate’s new functionality people who don’t know pinyin (and who aren’t professional typists and/or who don’t write in simplified Chinese) still can’t type Chinese. What Google has done hasn’t improved the situation a single bit.
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Google Translate introduces new input tools







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