Slashdot Mirror
Toshiba Intros Trilingual Translation App For Cellphones
MojoKid writes "Shortly after hearing of a simple, two-way Spanish-to-English translator for the iPhone, Toshiba has announced that it has developed a new language translation system that requires no server-side interaction. The app is designed to be operated independently on a smartphone, which will eliminate costly data roaming fees that are generally incurred using systems that require an internet connection to retrieve translations. The system is trilingual in nature and enables users to translate freely among Japanese, Chinese, and English."
American
There is a world of difference between translating between Spanish and English (two European languages) and English and Japanese or English and Chinese.
Even bilingual people have trouble,www.engrish.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolingualism -(although "unilingual" is obviously also used, 1/2 point for you there.)
What does he call someone who speaks two languages, stereolingual?
No, that would be bilingual.
Good luck with your next correction!
Experience teaches only the teachable. -AH
Chinese: "Huong xi ching chang shen chong." Japanese: "Toko ne tatekawa no kesaki." English: "Yes honorable sex-worker, please do shit on my chest and insert an octopus in my ass."
Given the usual accuracy of automated translation systems, this is what you'll get when you ask for directions to nearest 4 star hotel.
I've poked around Talk to Me, an app for Android. You speak your phrase into it and it speaks back in the language of your choice.
I don't know if it requires a data connection or not, but we're living in the future now.
What doesn't kill you only delays the inevitable
Doesn't RIM produce one?
.sig withheld by request
As anyone who has ever used an online translation engine can tell you, going between English and either Chinese or Japanese leads to a stream of gibberish which at best gives the wily reader a hint of what the original topic might have been about.
I foresee a few tourists on both sides of the pond having some epic adventures as a result of relying upon this app :)
political_news.c: warning: comparison is always true due to limited range of data type
And German is even relatively similar to English...aside from switching around word order and obeying German grammar, something can be phrased in German and English in a very similar way. It may sound clumsy in one language, but it can be understood. In comparison, a sentence translated from English to Japanese frequently uses a completely different word structure. As an example:
English: I like you
German: Ich mag dich.
The English and German bo take the form of [Subject Pronoun] [verb] [Object pronoun]. An equivalent in Japanese would be "Anata ga suki desu". That breaks down as [Pronoun] [Topic marker] [na-Adjective] [Formal copula]. And that's for a very simple sentence.
It is pitch black. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.