How To Split An Atom - Latest Comments in Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

A Burger — Fri, 27 Mar 2009 05:29:00 -0000

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!

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Vacation Rentals — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 05:17:28 -0000

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

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 09:14:59 -0000

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!

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Brent — Thu, 15 Nov 2007 01:46:39 -0000

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/...

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:26:45 -0000

I am sure that was amusing. Ha.

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

drt — Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:16:33 -0000

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:

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 17:00:52 -0000

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

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

MoneyMoose — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 15:25:25 -0000

Oh man oh man oh man.

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

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 23:46:52 -0000

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

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Advice_Network — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 19:09:57 -0000

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.

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 02:24:39 -0000

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.

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

Jerad Kaliher — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 01:39:48 -0000

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?!

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:16:25 -0000

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.

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

danielha — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:08:42 -0000

Web X.0 needs a new Babel Fish.

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

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

sbspalding — Thu, 08 Nov 2007 15:05:45 -0000

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.

Re: Babel Fish Is Not A Diplomatic Tool

AOV Philippines Outsourcing — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 20:28:23 -0000

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