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Real-Time Computer-Based Translation in Iraq
[TheBORG] writes "The U.S. military has been testing software on laptops that translate English to Arabic and Arabic to English to have conversations with Iraqis without the need to have a Arabic linguist on hand. 'This year the military's Joint Forces Command has been testing laptops with such software in Iraq. When someone speaks into a microphone attached to the computer, the machine translates it into Arabic and reads that translation aloud over the PC's speakers. The software then translates the Arabic speaker's response and utters it in English.'" (See this related story from last year about this daunting machine-translation task.)
With some luck it will translate my banal whining into cutting social commentary.
From the article:
Given that "Al Qaeda" is Arabic for "The Base", and machine translation is notorious for its poor grasp of grammatical structure and homonyms, are soldiers going to have to deal with outputs like "AL YOUR QAEDA ARE BELONG TO US"?
Arabic is even worse than most human languages for being contextual and ambiguous. It's superb for writing poetry but betting lives on translating it automatically?
...It is not before one hapless American, searching for the nearest terrorist, blurts out to a startled passerby "Please fondle my buttocks"
Why don't the iraqis just use subtitles?
Reminds me of experiment I read about in old computer book... Program was created to translate from English to Russian and back. As a test, a phrase "Time flies like arrow" was translated to Russian and then back to English. It came back as "There are types of flies, called 'Time Flies' that enjoy eating arrows.
The troops learn simple, common phrases in arabic but that's it. If you actually expect them to learn to speak or read it fluently, then you're expectations are completely unrealistic. Your argument might have some actual bite instead of weak flaimbaitness if you made such a comment about the leadership of the country that sends the troops there in the first place.
Any man who afflicts the human race with ideas must be prepared to see them misunderstood. -- H. L. Mencken
My hovercraft is full of eels.
I used to work for a translation company and I've seen how much confusion can arise from even human translation, it makes me wonder really how prone to error this will be.
Sometimes my arms bend back.
Soldier: Surrender now, we have you surrounded.
Computer: #All your base are belong to us#
Iraqis: [hysterical laughter]
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You can probably have unbelievably simple conversations, like
"Do you want to kill me?" "No."
And for anything approximating a normal conversation, it's utterly fucking useless. Also, for the times when you actually need a very urgent, very good understanding of the language to prevent a lot of trouble, I bet it's beyond worthless.
At present, and for the forseeable future, there's no adequate substitute for humans that speak the language. I realize we throw Arabic speakers out of the military because they're gay and all, but maybe we could make an exception because their skills are necessary at present. No computer translation system is adequate for usage in a live military operation.
Oh, and IACL (I am A Computational Linguist).
And you are right of course. This is more difficult than text-based translation, and will definitely not work. Last thing we need is more misunderstanding between our troops and the people over there.
They'll have to learn the hard way.
Such a device would only need a hand-full of phrases to handle 99% of all use:
* "I am a Canadian, not an American, so don't kill me."
* "I voted for Kerry"
* "Run!"
* "Oh Shit!"
* "I don't care how big her tits are, YOU frisk her this time."
* "Cut and run? sounds like a great idea right now."
* "Quick, help me find my lower intestine!"
Table-ized A.I.
1. Inflection and emphasis of some words over others
This is very important. Ever have somebody tell you "It's not what you say, it's how you say it"? It's true.
2. Colloquial expressions and figures of speech.
Right now, I'm looking at this book filled with conversational Arabic expressions I picked up in the U.A.E., most of which make absolutely no sense when translated into English. Do you know what "The son of a duck is a floater" means? Neither will U.S. troops or this device.
3. Body language
Many Arabic speakers in particular gesticulate while they speak. It is just part of their cultural identity and often, the body language is just as important as what is being said. U.S. troops in the field won't understand the importance of what they see, let alone what they hear, and this device certainly won't help them with that either.
This is just what I could think of in a minute or so. I'm sure there are many more fundamental problems with using the translation device. Note that with a real live translator, most of these problems are avoided. If the U.S. military kept its Arabic translators in their ranks instead of firing them based on their sexual orientation then maybe they wouldn't have to resort to these ridiculous devices.
... who think that computers are anywhere near ready to do realistic translation are people who have no concept whatsoever how complex human language really is. We will never have a working, reliable computer translation while we are still unable to fully explain or describe the rules of our own languages. Language is remarkably fluid and idiosyncratic, and the rules change not only from language to language, and from dialect to dialect within each language, but from individual to individual, and from utterance to utterance with each individual. So far, we have yet to invent a computer complex enough for the pattern-recognition skills necessary even to parse a majority of sentences correctly, much less decode them and then reconstruct them in a different language altogether.
None of this is to say that we can't ever do it, or that we shouldn't attempt. But the people who think it's possible with today's computer technology really don't understand the complexity of the problem.
How can a post be modded "overrated" or "underrated" when it hasn't been rated yet?
As someone who has studied translation (Japanese/English) at the University level, I can tell you that interpreting in real-time in a heavily context-sensitive language like Japanese or Arabic is an incredible challenge for even people who have spoken both languages for -decades-. When tiny grammatical changes can affect the entire meaning of a sentence, and voice recognition is by no means perfect, and homonyms come into play, the entire process is incredibly difficult. On a -personal- level, as someone who studies languages and desires a career in either teaching or translation, I'm worried not so much that it's replacing the human element, but that people believe it can be used without human intervention. The difficulty of interpretation and translation (this would be the former, for the record) is related to the distance, in linguistic construction, between the two languages, and few languages are further apart than English and Arabic. The increases in accuracy of machine translation also grow logarithmically; the more development that comes out of it, the less benefit you get. What I do believe we should be doing is investing money in both language education AND language technology. I also have a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth regarding the fact that the U.S. military is discharging qualified linguists that happen to be homosexual, but then I say that as a homosexual language student that wanted to join the military when I graduated. Now I'm looking to move to Canada.
Going back to school for entry-level jobs?
will it fit in my ear and does it come with chips?
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Oh please. Bleu Copas was by no means "flaming". Skeptical? See if you can "tell" if you didn't know to "ask" when you check out The Daily Show's hilarious take on the incident. Since anti-gay conservatives are as desirous of pragmatic thinking as they are 16 year old boys, let me ask you this: What do you think is more important, the safety of U.S. troops or the fact that the straight-acting man who is interpreting their words prefers men?
Actually we just can't cram soldiers through the Defense Language Institute's Arabic programs fast enough. It takes at minimum a year to achieve a basic conversational proficiency.
I'm too lazy to compose a creative sig.
OK, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who just thought of the inane results of translating things back and forth with Babel Fish .... This better be some DAMN good translation software.
...
I can just imagine the "limitation of liability" portion of the end-use agreement from the company that developed the translation software...
Even worse, what happens when some on-the-edge person pulls out a hidden weapon and injures/kills a soldier (or whoever) because of incorrect translation? Oh, is this just part of the "risk of the business"?
Colorless green dreams sleep furiously.
The article starts:
"One day, a U.S. soldier entering tense situations without the assistance of an Arabic interpreter might rely on two-way translation software in mobile computers."
The idea of occupation forces in Iraq relying on machine translations is frightening. I don't believe it will work, but that is only the start of my concerns. We're not talking about translating technical conversations, or asking where the bathrooms are. We're talking about frighteed 19 year olds who are afraid of each other. How could Americans expect a machine translation to make up for our near total ignorance of other cultures? It's hubris to imagine that a technical fix can bridge the gap between societies that have developed independently for more than *thousand years*.
On Wednesday, the Wasington Post reported that of 12,000 FBI special agents, only 33 have even limited proficiency in speaking Arabic. The FBI's screening process turns away people who have had a lot of exposure to foreigners!
We're terrible at understanding other cultures. That's the downside of growing up surrounded by oceans. A liberal arts education is supposed to help with that, but even my expensively educated friends and I don't speak other languages or spend much time abroad. How could we think we can "bring democracy" to another culture?
I know, I know, I'm ranting. It's just a dumb idea some desk jockey in the Pentagon came up with when his boss told him to "do something." But why aren't people laughing?
Don't mess with The Phone Company. Piss them off and you'll be using two tin cans and a piece of string.
Another typical "news" story that has anything BUT news in it. The writer obviously has never heard of SpeechGear. http://speechgear.com/
I don't speak your crazy moon language.
The phrase "Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana." is a Groucho Marx quote. I'm not sure of the original context, but it is an example of how English (or any other natural language) is notoriously difficult to handle. For example, the sentence "Time flies like an arrow." may be justifiably interpreted in a variety of ways:
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
the comic value of poor translation software may serve as a great ice break between the locals and the troops.
I remember the same thing happening while I was teaching English in Prague, 99 percent of the americans there simply couldn't learn czech, while a good 80-85 percent of the rest of us did. I spoke better czech after about 3-4 months than most of my american friends, regardless of how long they'd been there. Never mind how well the russians did, most of whom picked it up in weeks or at most a few months (their language obviously being much more similar, but still)
Being an american who spoke the local language was in fact considered extraordinary, and usually these people would be very well known in the expat community.
I have a feeling the soldiers would be more welcome and more accepted by the locals if they at least made a token effort to learn a little bit of the language and try to understand a little bit about local culture and values. Like, you know, read a few books published by iraqis for instance.
Nyhetsankaret.com -- det bÃsta av Sveriges Nyhetssido
"My hovercraft is full of eels"
:(
and then poked me with the electric cattle prod again.
I'd tell him what he wants to know, if only I could understand the question.
Quidquid Latine dictum sit, altum videtur (anything said in Latin sounds important)
Agreed 100%. I think that using technology to translate could be pyschologically, pretty bad. We all know that iraqis and americans are from different countries, but we also know quite a few iraqis can get by in english, as its such a common language. You already have a situation where an arabic guy is talking to some (probably) white guy, whose in uniform and holding a gun. Then you have the situation that he obviously doesnt speak any of your language, now we have a situation where he finds your language so weird and difficult to learn that he resorts to using technology instead. Iraqis arent stupid, they know that its possible to learn a foreign language, and lets remember that its the americans that have come to iraq, not the other way around. I reckon this is just going to cause resentment. It also changes the soldiers view of the iraqi. "these people speak so weirdly I need a laptop to communicate" etc (subconciously obviously).
To be honest, if your serious about 'winning hearts and minds' and determined enough to sacrifice X thousand soldiers in a protracted ground war on foreign soil, at least some small percentage of the budget needs to go towards language and culture lessons for that country.
I can see how some logistics staff in washington might think this is the solution, if there is such a thing as a'military psychologist' I'd like to hear their views.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
The dismissal of this many Arabic-speaking military linguists *has* had an enormous impact on the military's ability to function efficiently in the Middle Eastern theatre. Believe it or not, the Army is now recruiting linguists on Craigslist with the following ad:
I have also seen a classified ad from the Washington Post from the U.S. military, seeking Arabic linguists (among others) for training and employment. Clearly, discharging all those Arabic-speaking members of the military because of their sexual orientation was foolish, to say the least.
As for the argument that these soldiers should just "clam up" and "not tell the military" they are gay, many LGBQ people would love to serve their country this way. However, you should go to the previously mentioned Servicemembers' Legal Defense Network website at http://www.sldn.org/ to read about the everyday harassment, "witch hunts," and physical and emotional violence inflicted upon gay people by the military in violation of its own "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" rules. I think you would be extremely surprised to find out how many servicemen have been killed in the past five years by members of their own divisions/units; the Armed Forced do not exactly issue press releases every time something like this happens. The bottom line is that the vast majority of LGBQ soldiers are forced out against their will, as they try to be quiet and inconspicuous and to serve their country.
Now, being generous while categorizing those results gives:
Complete Success = 2 out of 9 = 22% (Spanish and Chinese)
Almost successfull = 1 out of 9 = 11% (Japanese)
Catastrophic failures = 3 out of 9 = 33% (Portuguese, Italian and Korean)
Serious failures = 3 out of 9 = 33% (French, German and Arabic)
How they get to sell software which fails more than half the times at translating such a simple sentence is truly beyond me...
The AACS key is NOT 0xF606EEFD628B1CA427BEA93A9CA9773F
Thank goodness nobody said Universal Translator yet
I had the privledge of talking to some American soldiers in Eliat, Israel. And it seemed to me they were in a similar position to the IDF, when it came to speakers of Arabian. Most of the IDF is taught a basic smattering of Arabic, phrases like 'Stop or I'll shoot', 'Please go the other way.', and 'You're under arrest'. And the majority don't speak Arabic, they speak Hebrew. If you're not in a border patrol, you may not have a speaker of Arabic with you. Even more so if you're not in an area such as Gaza, The West Bank, Or near the Lebonese/Syrian Border: Areas where the need to speak Arabic are much higher then in Eliat, at the southern tip of the country. My point is: Can you expect Americans, who more then likely do not interact with Arabian people, to learn anything more then a few phrases? No. Israeli's who are exposed to far more Arabic don't, and Hebrew is full of cognates from Arabic even. Even after years of exposure to a language- if you primarily only speak English, that's all you'll pick up. As for Arabian culture and values, its a bit odd in general: But most culture and values mean absolutly dick in a war-time situation. The siege mentaility begins to pervade everything they do. Personally, I have the feeling that most Iraqis are feeling more like the American's are invaders and occupiers then a liberation force. And most people won't invite their local invader to tea.
A stint in Afghanistan will only give you a leg up in Pashtu and Dari. Arabs are as foreign as the NATO troops in Afghanistan. It probably all sounds like "durka durka durka" to Mr Ignorant Anonymous Coward.
I remember a news report of US soldiers going door-to-door shaking down a "hostile" Iraqi town. My favorite moment was the first grunt through the door yelling, "Yimshi! Yimshi! Get down! Get down!" as he threw a confused Iraqi to the floor.
I know enough Arabic to know Yimshi means "Walk," or "Leave/Get out of here."
I'd rather have someone respond than be modded up.
The sentence you chose is vulnerable to a lot of factors that make translation difficult. It contains a contraction, for one thing. Worse, it contains a pronoun, so all at once it's subject to problems among languages with gendered pronouns versus those without -- that's why the gender gets thrown away in the German, Italian, Portuguese, and French versions. It also contains a past participle predicate, which is another construction that has analogues in many languages but different actual meanings (hence the Japanese version).
All the same, it does pinpoint how freakin' amazingly awful Babelfish Korean is. Even Japanese is better.
Whence? Hence. Whither? Thither.