Greetings once more from JAFHR.
Today I shall help you, avid reader, to do your French homework. I shall put to test four major translators: Babel fish, Google Translator, SDL and Bing Microsoft translator. The test shall be conducted as follows:
Today I shall help you, avid reader, to do your French homework. I shall put to test four major translators: Babel fish, Google Translator, SDL and Bing Microsoft translator. The test shall be conducted as follows:
- A famous and long extract shall be taken from Oliver Twist, by Charles Dickens (If you must know, it is the passage leading to the "I want some more" incident, the link to which can be found below.) I chose this because it is very good and yet simple English vocabulary, yet modern enough to have obvious equivalents in other languages.
- Being French, I shall translate the extract into French myself, and then, to be sure I have not committed mistakes, I shall have my mother (a French author in her day) check my translation for errors.
- The aforementioned extract shall be copied and pasted into each of the mentioned Translators, and translated into French. I shall compare my translation to the outcome, and decide which is most trustworthy.
- First impression: Seems very simple, easy to use, interesting 'Highlight' idea.
- Total Languages Spoken: 64 (including two Chinese.)
- Translation into French: Very easy to understand, though sometimes words are skipped out. Mixes up syntax, but never fails to provide adequate wording. Mistakes are of the kind that I would expect a thirteen year old boy with a sound vocabulary to make. Easy to understand; teacher may be satisfied that no computer was involved. Translation took three seconds.
- First Impression: Seems complicated, took a while to work out how to operate the languages- seems more a scholar's repertoire of knowledge than a schoolboy's homework-doer; possible to get passage translated by human within a week, however costs £0.07/Word.
- Total Languages Spoken: 34 (including 3 Spanish and 2 Portuguese)
- Translation into French: Not a bad syntax, which makes SDL understandable- however gender is often disastrous, eg. saying that the word 'women' is masculine. Mistakes are perhaps quite mature, passable as human mistakes.Translation took five seconds.
- First Impression: Quite simple, easy to use, though word limit may prove a problem if you are given a long essay to translate into French. Much of page occupied by advertising.
- Total Languages Spoken: 13(including 2 Chinese) though the Choice menu offers a curious way to fill up empty space.
- Translation into French: Not passable as human errors at all. Knows such fruity words as "alimentation", and "effectuer", yet fails to find meaning in the word "mealtimes". Here also, there is a problem in gender, as it says that women is a masculine singular word. Translation took ten seconds.
- First impression: Simple as Google Translator, easy to use.
- Total Languages Spoken: 37 (including two Chinese)
- Translation into French: Good syntax, and errors passable as human errors, though the 'women are masculine' argument still persists. Easy to understand; teacher may be satisfied that no computer was involved. Translation took four seconds.
In conclusion, I should say that Bing and Google are neck and neck. Google has the slight advantage of its Highlighting idea, which makes it easier to work with; however...
Warning!
None of these translators passed the test to a satisfactory level, so, unless your homework is drastically simple (no subjunctives, existentials and so on are involved) always refer to a human rather than a computer. I happen to be able to do your homework- at a reasonable price, of course.
Hoping this helps,
Your friend,
-JAFHR-
Very good, informative review. Must have taken ages.
ReplyDeleteIndeed it did. I seriously appreciate the praise.
DeleteThanks.
What's the name of that app that translates text through the camera on iPhone? You should review that one
ReplyDelete