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August 24th, 2009- Airports today: FOUR B'ham, St. Louis, Salt Lake & Spokane). Times Henry cried: ZERO. His reaction to whoosing air after landing: HUGE grin. #
- Wondering how risky/effective it would be to send to a Korean family a simple letter written in English & run thru Google's translator. #
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August 24th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Let’s do a simple test. Here’s a “simple written letter” in English:
Mr. and Mrs. Park,
It was a pleasure meeting you last weekend. I hope you enjoyed the opera. Please look me up the next time you are in New York and we can have dinner together.
Best regards,
Ben Miller
Here’s what Babelfish comes up with in Korean:
park 씨와 여사, 쾌락 회의 당신 마지막 주말이었다. 나는 당신이 오페라를 즐겼다는 것을 희망한다. 당신이 뉴욕에 있고을 우리는 저녁식사가 함께 있어 좋을 다음에 저를 찾아보십시오. 안부를 전하며, 벤 밀러
I can’t read Korean, so I can’t judge, but maybe one of your other readers can. Here’s the Korean back-translated into English:
park and the Mrs., pleasure meeting you last was a weekend. I enjoyed this opera of you hope the thing. There will be to this New York of you and we will be a dinner together and after, try to seek me. Conveys a welfare, cuts pushes
Verdict: fail. The two languages have very, very different structures, and Babelfish can’t cope. I would get a Korean friend to translate it for you instead.
August 24th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Ha! Yup, not going to try it.