Those interested in automatic translators will probably find this article useful: http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...tures/how-google-translate-works-2353594.html It is about how Google Translate works, and why it usually outperforms other automatic translators. To verify this claim, I translated a piece from English to Russian. The result was not perfect but it was very good. Here is what to do: 1) Go to http://translate.google.com 2) Specify languages, for example, English --> Russian 3) Paste (or type) the text to be translated. 4) Click on the “translate” button The translated text will appear at once. You can just read it or cut-and-paste it into another document. Ludwik Kowalski (see Wikipedia)
My google chrome asks me if I'd like to translate the page. Then the article often reads as if it were in English to begin with with a few oddities here and there. Great enough to make sense of it though. If my wife starts talking in her native tongue; the whole neighbourhood understands what she is saying without a translator.
Interesting link. I hadn't thought before of professional translators using translation engines, but it makes sense. They can let the software do the donkey work, and then clean it up afterwards. Also, the notion that you are translating into another language using chunks taken from previously translated texts of Detective novels. I like that idea. I just put this in: Jacob regarda la vitre de son bureau, et il vit une femme qui attend. and it came up with this: Jake looked through the dirty window of his crummy downtown office, and saw the curvy shape of a broad waiting outside.
