Professional translators, in their spare cycles, translate each others' toughest terms in whatever language. Points, peer review and other techniques are used to incent and arrive at the "best" translations. So far, it's scalable (1000 questions / day.)
Please don't slashdot it too hard, or the moderators will start squashing you guys.:)
Even the best Machine Translation (MT) systems are only useful for what are referred to as "gyst" translations. The makers of the leading systems concede this. One (Transparent Language) says:
"If you are going to disseminate your translation to others, you usually want a human translator to at least look it over and edit it, as in our PersonalPlus translation service level on PlusTranslation.com. If you are going to print or publish your translation, you definitely want the translation done by a competent human translator who has experience in that particular domain..."
Another interesting commentary on this is provided by the president of the American Translator Association, in a letter to President Clinton: Letter to Clinton
-------- Point 2: There's a better way --------
The top level systems have extremely large databases (of vocabularies, morphologies, idioms and grammar patterns) and are not currently practical for handheld devices.
A much better solution is using your handheld to connect to other people--people who speak the required langauges--and getting translations from intelligent human beings.
Slashdot Mirror
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/
We call it "KudoZ".
:)
Professional translators, in their spare cycles, translate each others' toughest terms in whatever language. Points, peer review and other techniques are used to incent and arrive at the "best" translations. So far, it's scalable (1000 questions / day.)
Please don't slashdot it too hard, or the moderators will start squashing you guys.
--------
Point 1: Not there yet
--------
Even the best Machine Translation (MT) systems are only useful for what are referred to as "gyst" translations. The makers of the leading systems concede this. One (Transparent Language) says:
"If you are going to disseminate your translation to others, you usually want a human translator to at least look it over and edit it, as in our PersonalPlus translation service level on PlusTranslation.com. If you are going to print or publish your translation, you definitely want the translation done by a competent human translator who has experience in that particular domain..."
Another interesting commentary on this is provided by the president of the American Translator Association, in a letter to President Clinton:
Letter to Clinton
--------
Point 2: There's a better way
--------
The top level systems have extremely large databases (of vocabularies, morphologies, idioms and grammar patterns) and are not currently practical for handheld devices.
A much better solution is using your handheld to connect to other people--people who speak the required langauges--and getting translations from intelligent human beings.
We're working on this.
Henry
ProZ.com