No more translation fee, easy way to save money !

redhits · Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Romania

Why to pay so many money on a translator , when you can use a free one, that can translate a whole document in just 1 second? With little or no mistakes? Available 24/7 ?

Yes… it’s true , use the tool made by AlataVista :

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

Guest

redhits wrote: Why to pay so many money on a translator , when you can use a free one, that can translate a whole document in just 1 second? With little or no mistakes? Available 24/7 ?

YesEit’s true , use the tool made by AlataVista :

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

If you talk or write textbook English it works. Sometimes. Try typing in something remotely colloquial and it's hilarious. (I'm a translator. It's hellish work trying to sound real!)

Jonathan · Joined: 06 May 2004 Posts: 35

Anonymous wrote: redhits wrote: Why to pay so many money on a translator , when you can use a free one, that can translate a whole document in just 1 second? With little or no mistakes? Available 24/7 ?

Yes... it’s true , use the tool made by AlataVista :

http://babelfish.altavista.com/

If you talk or write textbook English it works. Sometimes. Try typing in something remotely colloquial and it's hilarious. (I'm a translator. It's hellish work trying to sound real!)
Excellent point "guest"... literal translations may be easy to come by but idiomatic ones are an entirely different matter altogether. If the translation is really business related it is very much worth it to get it done right. I've heard of way too many cases where an excellent product bombed in a new market because lay translation was used (i.e. a local who was fluent in one language and "knew" how to speak some of the other)... something that several books on business have also pointed out. Aside from negative marketing repercussions there's also an image factor involved with prospective partners, etc., who may take the less than ideal translation as a sign of sloppiness and lack of attention to detail.

cocodrilo · Joined: 03 Jul 2004 Posts: 6 Location: Kurashiki, Japan

There are some things that just don't translate and unless you know the colloquialisms and culture, there is no effective way to get the message across. As an example, I like to watch American movies subtitled in Japanese and see how many mistakes I can catch per movie. In one film, the actor said I want "a coke" and the transaltor had written "some COCAINE"! I'm about to start writing letters as some of these things can be insulting to our society as a whole!(You wouldn't believe some of the mistakes I see!)...