Translate webpages, Thai/Eng- Eng/Thai (42 other languages)

[SilverhawkUSA]

I just stumbled across this and it is pretty amazing; at least to me. I tried it on a number of Thai and English websites and it seems to work. Maybe not 100% but damn good. It translated those Thai language "motorcycle for sale ads" with no problem.

WARNING: One drawback may be it also translated this forum from English to Thai. Maybe you don't want to tell the Thai wife/GF about it? :shock:

Instead of the link quoted below, use this one to start;

http://translate.google.com/?hl=en

Daily Xpress
Published on February 13, 2009

Lost in translation? Here's an end to your worries, cyber folks. Google yesterday announced the launch of a site -- http://translate.google.co.th -- that will translate 42 languages to and from Thai......

 

[Ally]

Thanks for highlighting that Silverhawk, very useful but people need to be aware that there are terrific flaws in the translation of English into Thai.

It certainly outputs Thai words but the fact that you were writing about one thing and it reading about something completely different after translation, is a real worry.

Great idea though.

Ally

 

[SilverhawkUSA]

Ally wrote: Thanks for highlighting that Silverhawk, very useful but people need to be aware that there are terrific flaws in the translation of English into Thai.

It certainly outputs Thai words but the fact that you were writing about one thing and it reading about something completely different after translation, is a real worry.

Great idea though.

Ally

I have found they are running a thread on this on Thai Visa also now. They have some very knowledgable Thai/Eng speakers and they mostly think it is pretty good. Of course there will always be some translation problems but it is better than nothing. I think it will be useful for me Thai to Eng, especially looking up Thai motorcycle websites.

 

[tonykiwi]

SilverhawkUSA wrote: I think it will be useful for me Thai to Eng, especially looking up Thai motorcycle websites.

I think that is the key for any of these translators.

They are good when translating INTO your own language because you can naturally understand when the translation is not perfect and compensate.

Translation FROM your language, and particularly into one where dialect, tone and 'characters of alphabet' etc are totally different can never hope to be accurate and liable for major changes.

T

 

[KZ]

English /Thai translations must be a real challenge. I use german / english translators at work, these two languages do not differ that much from each other, but sometimes even the best sites come up with gibberish. The art of making it sound like the real thing is to change things around, find the right expressions and then build the sentence right. They are a real help but you have to double-check the results, for example "powder coat finish" was translated into "Pudermantelschluss" which is a real crack-up - too bad you don't speak german, missed out on that one ;-) - Not you, Franz...
I sent already emails to thai friends which I ran through the google translingorola (the messages, not the friends - see how accurate the english language is?) and my friends answered that they (the messages, not they themselves) didn't make much sense. Thai with no punctuation and endless sentences is a difficult language to translate into, without any kind of intonation. But it might just be enough to crack those thai language bike for sale ads, and that's quite some progress there.

 

[Franz]

Klaus "Pudermantelschluss" ??? Hahaha that's a real good one, means this program translates single words and then forms this rubbish. :twisted: I once got some DVD's in China which had the descriptions also translated from any language into English, what a crap that was written there. Just had a look at www.mocyc.com and their auto-translation versions, just nonsense; if I need some amusing entertainment I'll always go to the translated versions :lol: . For me this doesn't work, it might be of some help for non Thai speakers but you must be very creative in getting misspelled words right. Cheers, Franz