COMPUTER TRANSLATIONS

Beware of confusing computer translations

Have you ever received a jumble of disconnected words and sentences in a message that defied unraveling? If so, it was probably the result of a computer-aided translation.
If on a web site you read “translate this page”, cover your eyes, brace yourself, and expect the worst once you click on it because often you will not be able to make heads or tails of most of the “translation.” It will sound “weird” and “funny”, the result of a computer-aided translation.
When you read the instructions or directions to a newly bought gadget from, say, China, you may end up throwing your hands up in despair at the confusing wording of the brochure, which is the result of machine translation.
The now famous sign in a Japanese hotel: “You are invited to take advantage of the chambermaid” was probably the result of machine translation.

Millions of words are poured daily from one language to another with the aid of translation software that has been dramatically improved of late, but that is still a long, long way from reaching acceptable idiomatic standards. At this point we can still write of “confusion-aided translations.”

Read the rest of the article here: www.http://voxxi.com/2013/09/28/confusing-computer-translations/