Google is known for encouraging their employees’ creativity to run wild. A new site called “Translation Telephone” is a good example.

According to the Programmable Web blog, a Google employee, Pamela White, has created an online version of the popular telephone game. The site runs a phrase, sentence, or paragraph through Google Translate in 20 different languages…and back again.

Of course, I just have to try this RIGHT NOW. So what better place to start than the previous sentence?

Okay, I’m live blogging this…”Of course, I just have to try this RIGHT NOW” has now been translated, before my very eyes, through 20 random languages, including Galician, Hebrew, and Haitian Creole. You can see for yourself here.

And the result?

“Sure, I tried.” Which I indeed did – how fun!

The site makes a clear disclaimer: “This tool is not affiliated with Google and is not intended as a criticism of Google Translate. Google Translate is an awesome service.”

Whatever your view of computerized translation, it is to be expected that virtually any sentence translated through 20 languages in a couple of seconds is going to come out completely modified.

I will add another disclaimer: as of this writing, the “recent” and “popular” phrases submitted to Translation Telephone are not for refined tastes. So get in there and try some literary quotations or song lyrics…

Betty Carlson

See Also

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