There was an old story about the early days of computer translation. The CIA was interested in translation programs because of the tremendous volume of information they had. There simply weren't enough transcribers with linguistic training to transcribe them. One of the major computer companies came in with a program that was supposed to translate from English to Russian and Russian to English and solve the problem. To test it, the representative of the company said, "Just speak into the microphone. On the screen you will see what you have said." So, thinking for a moment, the CIA guy went over and said, "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak."
The machine cranked and groaned and there in Cyrillic letters across the screen was some Russian. Well, he didn't speak any Russian so he didn't know whether it translated it accurately. "Can you make it translate back into English and we'll see whether it got it right?" he asked. So the guy went over to the keyboard, pushed a couple of keys and translated it back into English. Only it said, "The vodka's O.K. but the meat is spoiled."
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- http://www.usksider.co.uk
- 04 Feb. 2008 @ 07:06:43
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- 04 Feb. 2008 @ 07:08:31
I wish it was true too, but like you Usky I reckon it would just come out with jibberish.
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- http://poppycock.blog.co.uk/
- 04 Feb. 2008 @ 08:18:16
Seriously - I am convinced that some people (middle or far eastern?) are using translation software to write their blogs in English. Some of the errors can only be machine generated.
Usksider
Pro
Wouldn't you just love that be true.
Somehow though I suspect a real translation programme will have made more of a dog's dinner of the phrase.