Online translators...?

Why do people insist on using online translators and pretending to be native in languages they are obviously not!! I have seen trolls in my life but wow the one i just encountered had an 87% accuracy rate. NO reason to give names, not my point or question. Do you all feel that online translators are actually good? Or do you believe as I do that they are very bad especially babels and the best translation is from some one who does it without a online translator.





What are your thoughts?

Online translators...?
I couldn't agree more with you. I've seen such dreadful translations! What annoys me the most is that they're posted as legitimate translations and all they do is mislead the askers. There are even those who pretend to be 'Teachers' so as to make the whole business look as 'true'.


Anyway, anyone can answer as they please as annoying and misleading as it may be.
Reply:Only Moron in here is you Ashley Troll! Report It

Reply:Gillepi - You also had a great answer and I want all to know i chose who I did because though yours was great too I had to pick due to the troll below and she had most votes is how i chose seeing all were good ans, -=] ty for answering Report It

Reply:What a lot of great answers! Many of the other answers gave words to my feelings. Report It

Reply:Yes all were great comments, well mostly lol. Ty for answering! Report It

Reply:I understand a fair amount of japanese and I have used both the google translate this page thing and windows translator .The result is usually hilarious .They are obviously compiled by people who know japanese but dont fully understand english and a understanding of both is required for a proper translation.
Reply:Ich finde online übersetzer richtig doof und Leute die diese benutzen und sich als Muttersprachler ausgeben total überflussig.





I find on-line übersetzer really stupidly and people use this and itself as a native speaker are totally economical überflussig.





I find Online translators really stupid and people that use these and glaim to be native speaker are totally useless.
Reply:They have their use, but deception should not be one of them.
Reply:i don't mind them.





On a game i play im a helper so i basically work as a living FaQ on the game, the only problem is a lot of people don't speak english who play (which is odd considering the game is in english) so i end up figuring out what the language is, then using altvista to translate the question as best i can.





Then i send my response with both english answer, and with the babelfish translation. Its the only REAL way for me to respond as my knowledge of most foreign languages is minimal at best.
Reply:You are absolutely right I agree 100 % .


I think it is also very unfair towards the asker to use these things without saying so or even pretending to be a native or worse a teacher.


I keep telling people to keep away from these online translations as most time you get really bad translations as they just translate word for word no correct grammar even the word might be wrong as there are often several possible meanings.......
Reply:I have to agree with Hilmar!


I keep telling people not to use on line translator because they give wrong answers.





Have you tried to type a sentence like :


je ne peux pas prendre l'avion car j'ai mal au coeur chaque fois que je le fais.


Here is the translation from Babel fish :


I cannot take l'avion bus j'ai nausea each time I do it





Kind of funny...no?


Another thing about trolls : they have a new game ! they put thumbs down, hoping that they will convince the asker that some good answer are wrong.


Hilmar will agree with me about that...
Reply:People use the translators for one of two reasons: either they actually believe that a machine can translate for them, or they want to look like they are foreign, and may not be.





I don't think anyone who has more than two years' language study could POSSIBLY think they are being smart and looking intelligent by using a machine.
Reply:I sometimes use them to get an idea of what the text is talking about. I wouldn't use them to get an exact translation or to post an answer here. No matter how good it is, it won't be perfect.
Reply:This is so true! I sometimes try to explain why auto-translators don't work and if it seems to be homework I warn them their teacher will get a laugh before giving them a bad score - - that it's just like taking for each word the first listed definition - -when it may be the wrong definition, and WILL be in the wrong order since grammar varies by language . A few also are programmed to recognize and translate some common phrases, or to attempt to conjugate a verb based on the closest noun - - but they do this with limited success.


Auto translators can be somewhat useful to translate FROM an unknown language to just try to get a basic sense of what something is about- -BUT even for that you must realise their limitations. And for anything where details are critical, and for translating TO a language you don't know well, they are not trustworthy.


I too have given dictionary links like LEO instead.





It's bad enough that people give auto-trans answers for an easy 2 points and admit they are auto-trans. What is REALLY annoying --and bizarre - -are the people who lie and put "not an auto translator" when it really is, or pretend to be a "native speaker" or "teacher" to convince people their auto-trans answers (or 1st year language course- level answers) are right! Some fakes are more creative in their impersonation - - or really less creative but more plagiaristic (is that a word?) : a while ago I noticed an answer with a comment in another language that sounded very familiar.... and yes, it was copied and pasted from a discussion on another forum! I even hesitate to put something in "Source" regarding myself because it has been so devalued by people lying about this. Anyway it is complicated because I was not just raised in one place.





I too have seen a lot of thumbs down lately to good answers recently - - and of course without explaining in an answer of their own exactly what they found wrong. I think our intent in answering should be not to try to get some meaningless points but to try to help the questioner or other people who read it understand better for themselves, so I prefer it if someone explains why they disagree with an answer.
Reply:Tell me about it... "/ Why dn't they just go out and actually learn the language, Its way better than giving such a horid translation of things. All they do is sit behind a desk, coping and pasteing the sh (I), pretending they can speak the languge. It gets me piss %26amp; I can understand how people feel (The ones who can ACTUALLY speak another language)
Reply:They should be eliminated for good. I'm trilingual and it's a slap on the face seeing these ppl getting best answer. Grab a book if you so desperately want to impress people.
Reply:There are those who need SO much to prove themselves worthy the will make fools of themselves to do it.


virtual translators suck. There is no real replacement for learning a language or a live translator.