If you had no idea how utterly hilarious and incorrect machines translate English to Chinese, then you will be completely astounded at some of the non-human translations we’ve unearthed from testing some of these online DIY services.
Before you find yourself falling prey to these automated services, after you learn more about the perils you’re likely to encounter when you translate English to Chinese using a computer generated translation service online, you’ll likely want to ensure that you hire a service that uses humans to do the work.
This article injects a bit of satirical humor into an otherwise serious matter, and will likely have you in stitches and learning a thing or two about the perils of automated English to Chinese translation at the same.
First off, Google would translate “This is a century old five bedroom homestead updated in 1988” to “This is the century at 1988 updated old five bedrooms house”. And if that isn’t enough diction faux pas to whet your appetite, we tried an automated translation for “It is hot today” and got an outlandish blunder that reads “Today’s hot it was”. Crikey, if this isn’t hilarious I don’t really know what is! Automated Chinese to English translations can produce the oddest sentences ever. Suffice to say, and I’m sure you’ll agree, this is not English.
“Voters can expect lengthy delays at the ballot box” is translated automatically to “In the election voters can look forward to a long delay”. The more you begin to analyze these mistakes the more you’ll want to steer well away from automated translation services. Wouldn’t you agree? And you haven’t quite heard the half of it yet.
If you look at a collection of Chinese public signs and their attempted English translations you will come up with some truly jaw-dropping lines like “Hand Grenade” for fire extinguisher; “Special for Deformed” for a disabled sign; Fuck Vegetables” displayed inside a supermarket isle; you would find menus displaying “Whisky & Cock”; “Poison & Evil Rubbish” for a litter bin display; “Urinating in the Pool, You Are the Best” by the poolside; “Slip and Fall Carefully” for a sign that warns you of a slippery floor. And this next one is quite unfathomable to say the least: on a soup packet you’ll find the most unimaginable “Food for Sluts” on clear display.
I know that all of this sounds a little humorous, but I wonder if you have noticed how grave the consequences of using an automated Chinese to English service are. If you’re in business, the last thing you’ll want is to give your prospects a bad impression of your business.
As you think about this now, later you will draw up your own conclusion, no doubt. And I am sure, once you’ve weighed these two options, you will come to the realization that it makes perfect sense to have humans translate English to Chinese for you, rather than use the automated services that would likely bring shame and disrespect to your business.
Making a good impression is important for the success of your business. Computers do a fairly good job of translating individual words, but have serious limitations when translating complex sentences. Knowing about these limitations, however, can help you get the best English to Chinese translation possible.