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Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Started by sbspalding · 1 year ago

Here is a lesson in diplomacy. When sending a missive to a foreign diplomat, it’s best if you don’t use Babel Fish to handle the hassle of translation for you. If you don’t believe me, take this case as an example.

“Helloh bud, enclosed five of the questions in honor of the foreign minister: The […]




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16 comments

  • Advice_Network

    1 year ago

    It mat be a horrible diplomatic tool, but I had better luck with a woman once. She was Croatian, and I wrote an email to her, and used Babel fish to translate the email (I included the original English too)

    She informed me that my Croatian was horrible, but she thought it was so great that I was trying.
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    :) I guess some Croatian is better than none, unless of course you're dealing with foreign ministers.
    reply
  • Jerad Kaliher

    1 year ago

    I've gotten myself into a lot of trouble with translation software. While I was learning French it did more harm than good, especially on homework.

    So it just goes to say, if I'm uncomfortable using it with my homework, why is it popping up to foreign diplomats?!
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    French doesn't translate very well using software. You might have been better off searching out some kindly French speakers on a Forum.

    As to why it's showing up in diplomacy. That I can't help you with, I'm guessing they assumed that the tech was much more advanced than it is.
    reply
  • AOV Philippines Outsourcing

    1 year ago

    It is always better to have a person who knows the language translate it ... than any other software.
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    Translation software is great if you are only trying to get a very rough estimate of what is being said, but I don't think it makes a very good international relations tool. ha.
    reply
  • Daniel Ha

    1 year ago

    Web X.0 needs a new Babel Fish.

    Though I will forever be grateful for helping me through high school Spanish.
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    Yea it would great to have a collaborative translation service. You would need to find a ton of helpful multilinguals but if you could, it might save a lot these kinds of trouble.
    reply
  • MoneyMoose

    1 year ago

    Oh man oh man oh man.

    I definitely should not be negotiating that nuclear weapons deal with Russia.
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    If you're going be sure to use Google Translate, Babel Fish might get you in trouble. ;)
    reply
  • drt

    1 year ago

    I think Bable Fish also used the same software that many websites' owner displayed in their sites using the flag of the countries that their websites would be able to directly translate it to. I always found it amusing. To show the point I went to a site that had both the Japanese and English version and then used Bablefish to translate the Japanese version and displayed both translated versions. No, there is no harm. You may try it at home. :lol:
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    I am sure that was amusing. Ha.
    reply
  • Brent

    1 year ago

    I posted about another international incident possibly caused by poor online translators, and compared Babel Fish's performance with Google's alternative. Bottom line is: use Google's Language Tools, forget Babel Fish:
    http://brentblog.typepad.com/brentblog/2007/10/...
    reply
  • sbspalding

    1 year ago

    Wow, I was considering doing a similar experiment but you did a fantastic job. While I still would not bet my international reputation on Google's tools, those translations were extraordinarily accurate. What's really impressive is that Casablanca doesn't always use standard English syntax, which makes the task even harder.

    Nice article!
    reply
  • Vacation Rentals

    8 months ago

    Goodness me, one shouldn't laugh but... agreed the Google translator is far superior, gets my vote every time.
    reply
  • A Burger

    3 months ago

    I'm sorry but your translations into English are absolutely appalling and make no sense at all. If you provide your direct e-mail address i will scan the German and French to English translations. and forward to you. You will fall off your chair!
    reply

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