Mike's Free Time: A website translator.

Sunday, May 14, 2006

I am not sure how well the Babel Fish translator works. I am hoping to use it on some of the Japanese robo-one websites.

tempusmaster said...: Just my experience but for what it's worth:

1- Babelfish's translation is pretty good.

2- Excite's translation is also pretty good.

3- Google's translation is the absolute pits.

4- In translating from Japanese to English always keep in mind that the sentence structure and logic is very different. If you break down the sentences into individual words and phrases, then put them back together in a more logical sequence you'll get better results.

5- The quality of the output depends more on the original quality of the writer rather than the translation software. Some Japanese writers are very logical and write well in Japanese. They are easy to translate. Others that don't think and write logically are extremely difficult to understand even in Japanese, so there isn't much that the translation software can do to improve their writing.

6- Quite a few of the Japanese robot builders can read and write simple English, especially on technical subjects. You can try writing to them if you keep your sentences short, to the point, and respect their time. Some may not respond, but some will. It never hurts to try.

7- Never use their content or photos without their permission. Robotics is a small community, and everyone seems to know everyone. If they notice people not respecting their work, or ripping them off, the word gets around quickly and they will stop responding to questions and requests.; 8:14 PM