Google Translator.

[CaNz]

~What a lame description title... anyways...

So I have gotten quite a few Arab people that randomly friend me on MSN (CaNz can roughly be translated to a synonym of treasure in Arabic I think, but that doesn't explain much) and I normally send people I don't know a message just to make sure I don't know them... and I got a response in what to me looked like Black Speech from Lord of the Rings. I was curious so I copied and pasted it into google to find out what language it was... then in to their Translator. I then had a half hour conversation with someone (probably sounding like a five year old) in a language I couldn't even recognize. I have used this before with people on facebook... mostly French mutual friends (I dunno why I have those) and German people (Wittwer is an uncommon last name so I guess they don't mind reaching out) so Its not like it is constantly in use, but I still like that I have that kinda capability now.

I think massive translating technology like these could end up becoming widespread. It may just be an overactive imagination going off.. but I could see a combination of the always getting better voice recognition software with translators creating those sci-fi machines that let you speak and understand any language. I would like to know how you guys would feel about a dissolving language barrier.
Its nice to be understood, but the people you are talking to wouldn't have any more a grasp or understanding of your culture. Not being able to understand another language usually is a sign that says "we probably have nothing in common" but It doesn't mean "don't speak to me," as far as I know.

So to give this thread some discussion value... What were some of the times you guys tried to speak with someone who's language you didn't understand, and how did you deal with it?

[Lyndy]

[color="#556B2F"][font="Times New Roman"]One time, this French kid from dA added me on MSN and I used the translator then but Google translator sucks. It would jumble the words around and get some of the words wrong. So I just blocked him since he wouldn't leave me alone with speaking French. :V And to show how bad Google translate is, type "Will Justin Bieber ever hit puberty?". Translate from English to Vietnamese. Copy and paste the Vietnamese words and then translate it to English. You will get "Justin will never reach puberty?" [/font][/color] Edited January 22, 2011 by Lyndy

[CaNz]

That sounds about right to me.... I like Google translator even more now.
Edit: I tried it and it didn't work though... I got "When Justin Bieber Puberty?" ...which isn't nearly as funny but works better for a translator. Edited January 23, 2011 by CaNz

[Korey]

[font="Tahoma"]I use Google Translator to help me with specific words or phrases I'm not sure how to say with my 4 years of French. Sometimes it's best to say it in English too, because as far as I know...most people in Europe speak English to some degree. [/font]

[PiroMunkie]

[color="#006400"]I've never used it or anything similar when speaking with other people, but one time in high school when I was taking French we had to keep a sort of "journal" of our day to day activities for a while, but write it in French. The teacher said we were not to use translators and that she could tell if we did (because of things getting lost in translation). Not heeding that warning I went ahead and used one anyway; continuously translating and retranslating until I got something that worked and didn't sound like I was using a whole lot we hadn't necessarily learned. I got an 'A' on every turn-in, lol.[/color]

[Pioneer]

well its definetly something interesting.
however how about someone who is born in a time of such automatic translator devices would be exposed to people speaking in different languages and thus hearing all those languages scrambled through each other (as a child) and learning all these language scrambled through eachother.
this becomes a problem when there is no such device around, what language would you be speaking? fremaninish? aralish? italinese?

[Claire]

As far as internet translators go, Google is probably the best. I've been using it a lot lately, working on some Italian homework, and for the most part it gets a lot of things right. It usually understands the different tenses and pronouns and whatnot, as long as it's not too complicated.

I play guitar. = Suono la chitarra.
I played guitar. = Ho suonato la chitarra.

I trust it for simple things, but it's a good idea to double check.

I think cross-translating certain things will always beget humorous results, though. I was once working on a silly RPG and I needed some gibberish dialogue, so I put a bunch of random sentences into Babelfish and translated them a dozen different ways. What I ended up with was funnier than anything I could have come up with on my own (though I can't remember any of it, unfortunately).