To support the idea that machine or software translations are unreliable, I
offer up this webpage that takes the lyrics to Sesame Street, translates it
into Klingon, and then uses a software machine to translate it back!

Quite funny.

http://www.tlg.uci.edu/~opoudjis/Klingon/sesame.html

Matthew Guy

-----Original Message-----
From: UTC Staff E-Mail List [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of
Pedro Campa
Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2005 9:41 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: [UTCSTAFF] j Word Language Translator

>I recently discovered that Word 2005 can translate words and phrases into
>French, Spanish and/or German (I'm sure it does many others but...).  I was
>wondering if anyone in cyberspace knows how effective this tool is (I know
>very little Spanish and no French but needed an 'official' translation of a
>popular phrase).  Could I use it to translate something and not get laughed
>at for my poor use of French?
>
>I suppose if you didn't know about it and it is great, it might be worth
>noting since it may serve as yet another way for students to cheat at their
>homework.
>
>Thanks
>Melissa

M: Machine-generated translations are unreliable 
and often yield grotesque and puzzling results. 
Translation programs are useful for  the  fully 
-bilingual professional translator in that they 
offer consistency in the translation of long 
texts in  technical fields. The resulting 
translation however will still have to be 
adjusted and edited by the translator in order to 
get a reasonable facsimile of the target 
language. In my Department, we are constantly 
beset by requests to edit  machine-translated 
texts. We usually have to inform the people in 
question that their translation is illegible and 
incomprehensible to a native speaker of the 
language, at any level. You can view some 
examples of bad Spanish translations in the City 
of Chattanooga web page.
Recently we edited the Spanish text for the 
Chattanooga Aquarium tourist flyer. The well 
meaning, albeit ignorant translator, rendered 
"alligator snapping turtle" as tortuga 
come-caimanes, "alligator-eating turtle." The 
classic legendary example of bad Spanish 
translation is in a promotion ad for a major 
airline. The company wanted to underline the 
luxuriousness to their first class accommodations 
to Puerto Rico. The ad began with " Sit down in 
leather....." which the machine dutifully 
translated as "Siéntese en  cuero" which means 
"sit down naked.." As you can see we can tell 
when students use machine translations. Enough of 
this; you get the idea. A good source for 
accurate translations of proverbial phrases and 
expressions is a good encyclopedic dictionary. We 
have many in our library.  P.C.