I enjoy running passages through Google Translate from time to time – and not just for fun.

In the years I have been writing this blog, I have run a number of highly unscientific tests on automatic translation systems.

At first it was truly “just for fun.” Online translation platforms were something of a joke, and my tests invariably produced hilarious nonsense and huge examples of miscommunication.

But Google’s system of “statistical translation” means that little by little, it should be getting better. As the company explains, “it looks for patterns in hundreds of millions of documents to help decide on the best translation for you. By detecting patterns in documents that have already been translated by human translators, Google Translate can make intelligent guesses as to what an appropriate translation should be.”

In a recent “test run” using sentences with similar vocabulary, but of varying complexity, I was surprised by the general accuracy of a number of the phrases Google Translate produced.

The problem is, these translations did not necessarily reflect the meaning intended by my original French statements.

For example, Google Translate was able to generate the following rather habile grammatical structure:

It has been nearly two years since I worked in the sales team of the XYZ company.

The only problem is, the intended meaning of my French sentence was that the person has been working in the XYZ company for two years – and still works there.

In this case, two years were lost in translation.

Continue to use online translation programs with caution!

Betty Carlson

See Also

• Language Translation, Inc.
  A leading language translation and interpretation service provider for more than 20 years.