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Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

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Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#11

Post by tibbon »

nhebb wrote: post #5

If you try if with just the European languages, the translation actually comes through pretty well. Adding Persian or one of the Asian languages is where things get messed up. Which means... if you want to expand your market, you could probably provide sufficient support to European countries using Google translate to communicate with customers.

If i'm remembering right, that's largely because proceedings from EU and european courts are used as the data for many of these translators, since there is such a copious amount of text that is well translated between the languages and recorded.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#13

Post by mandeepdhami »

If you are just reading it, here is a sample:

Because Django was developed in a fast-paced newsroom environment, it was designed to make common Web-development tasks fast and easy. Here’s an informal overview of how to write a database-driven Web app with Django.

After 4 translations, becomes:

Django is a reporter for the dynamic environment in the development of the purpose of developing a common task, the network quickly and easily. Here is how to write a web application using Django informal summary of the database.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#15

Post by spiralganglion »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #9
spiralganglion wrote: post #3

I highly recommend taking some poetry through this process. I also highly recommend taking the translation back to English after each other language, so you can watch how each translation changes it. However, this is one case where Google's improvement of their algorithms make the outcome less interesting. I've watched it happen. I record music as a hobby. In the past 6 years, I've recorded 24 albums in 24 different…

> I also highly recommend taking the translation back to English after each other language, so you can watch how each translation changes it. That observation will change the translation though... Unless you went: A -> Spanish(A) -> English(Spanish(A)) -> German(Spanish(A)) -> English(German(Spanish(A))). Otherwise you'd be doing: A -> Spanish(A) -> English(Spanish(A)) -> German(English(Spanish(A))) -> English(German…

You're absolutely right.

It's a lot easier (nay, possible) to do it with the actual Google Translate website, which is where I do all my chained translations. It may seem like extra work, but it lets you get a sense of the qualities of each translation.

Obviously, haha, I've spent more time doing this than most would bother to.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#16

Post by healthyhippo »

In high school US history, there was a daily homework assignment where we had to turn in a 1 page paper on some historical topic (for example, the battle of antietam in the civil war). Teacher never really read the homework- just scanned it for some keywords and made sure no one was copying off of anyone else.

I made a deal with the girl that sat next to me that we would do each others homework on alternating weeks. On her weeks, she'd write two different versions of something similar, paraphrased from the textbook.

On my weeks, I'd copy /paste some blurb from online for her version. Then I'd take that blurb, and run it through babelfish a couple times for mine. Worked great.

One time I got sloppy, and didn't even run mine through the translator. I just handed in identical things in different fonts. She got a check +, and i got a check. I can't describe how furious I was.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#17

Post by epochwolf »

Well, I stumbled across a recording while I was cleaning him. He says that he belongs to someone named Obi-Wan Kenobi. I thought he might have meant old Ben. Do you know what he's talking about?

German -> Persian -> German -> Japanese -> Polish -> English -> Korean -> Chinese -> Italian -> Korean -> Spanish -> Polish -> Chinese -> Japanese

Oh, the game is pretty amazing. I have heard people kenobiraneun Obi. This point, I think this is old. You know?

--

I'm tempted to run some a Terms of Service through the translator a few times and see if anyone notices.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#18

Post by dkarl »

It has started getting stuck on translations from (but not to) Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, even though the translations execute quickly when I do them in Google Translate. It happens in Chrome and Firefox. I was able to use it for several minutes before this started happening.

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#19

Post by dkarl »

zalew wrote: post #6

Fun and interesting project. Reminds me of http://www.translationparty.com/ You should totally enable linking to the language setups, now it's hard to share an interesting result.

My friends and I had a lot of fun with translationparty.com, and I heartily second the creation of links so people can share. Shakespeare is always fun. Can anyone guess what these two are?

The death of hell for all of us dog, the dog's eyes in front of him, with his teeth, worrying lambs and noble lineage, and the masterpiece of God, a tyrant on the planet Defacer well fail, this is usually called the soul exists in the eyes, bruises, your uterus relax, to pursue our grave.

But I have to by law, larger than this year, the President, a child, but no more expensive orders my mind: What is worse, actually came to this world was sent, but his mother was right: when there a very good exercise, and a son of a bitch, must be recognized

It does better with shorter sentences:

Come on, you in me unsex human spirit, I filled with senior officials of the terrible cruelty of the full ah! Make my blood thick, blocking the access channel and remorse, and that nature, I do not blame the purpose visitings down, the effect is no peace between, for me! Come to my woman's breasts, and take the courage of my milk, the ministers murder

This one came out impressively accurate:

This is a dagger before me, the handle toward my hand?

Re: Show HN: What happens when you translate phrases too many times?

#20

Post by nicklovescode »

dkarl wrote: post #18

It has started getting stuck on translations from (but not to) Chinese, Japanese, and Korean, even though the translations execute quickly when I do them in Google Translate. It happens in Chrome and Firefox. I was able to use it for several minutes before this started happening.

I made a small edit, but I reverted it. Is it fixed now?
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