Comments on: BabelWith.me Enters the Thai Conversation http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/babelwithme-enters-the-thai-conversation/ Expat making her way through the Thai language and culture Thu, 17 May 2012 02:38:21 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Catherine Wentworth http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/babelwithme-enters-the-thai-conversation/#comment-1702 Catherine Wentworth Wed, 08 Jul 2009 00:55:18 +0000 http://womenlearnthai.com/?p=5965#comment-1702 Martyn - 'Excuse the pun but heaven forbid the kind of smutty conversations that are going to help fill the Church coffers' Lordy, lordy do you have that one right! All of the guys who have asked me about good email translators were not concerned about chatting with their aunties :-D Peter - 'use very short and simple sentences' That is an excellent idea. So just use the baby chatter that we first learn in a language. It makes a lot of sense because the simple sentences will be the first ones that Google will sort out. From what I read on Rikker's site (?), Google asks people to send in Google translations that are wrong. So eventually Google will work their way through the smaller sentences and on to the larger more complicated ones. (nice to see you here Peter) Martyn – ‘Excuse the pun but heaven forbid the kind of smutty conversations that are going to help fill the Church coffers’

Lordy, lordy do you have that one right! All of the guys who have asked me about good email translators were not concerned about chatting with their aunties :-D

Peter – ‘use very short and simple sentences’

That is an excellent idea. So just use the baby chatter that we first learn in a language.

It makes a lot of sense because the simple sentences will be the first ones that Google will sort out.

From what I read on Rikker’s site (?), Google asks people to send in Google translations that are wrong. So eventually Google will work their way through the smaller sentences and on to the larger more complicated ones.

(nice to see you here Peter)

]]> By: Pete, frogblogger http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/babelwithme-enters-the-thai-conversation/#comment-1701 Pete, frogblogger Tue, 07 Jul 2009 19:24:49 +0000 http://womenlearnthai.com/?p=5965#comment-1701 Likewise... I've seen what Google Translate does to French translations, so I wouldn't chance it in chats with Thais. Talen sums the dangers up perfectly! On the other hand, I've found it useful for translation in the other direction - you can usually get the gist of meaning from the result. This has allowed me to comment (in English) on a few twitters from Thais (in Thai) at times, and from the responses, it seems I wasn't completely off the mark in understanding what they were on about. One tip if you ever want to get any English translated into another language by automated software - use very short and simple sentences, where no ambiguity is possible. I've experimented with this from English to French, using different variations of a few sentences to express the same meaning. Some (the short, simple versions) were translated almost perfectly. But longer, convoluted versions mostly ended up as complete gibberish in French. Likewise… I’ve seen what Google Translate does to French translations, so I wouldn’t chance it in chats with Thais. Talen sums the dangers up perfectly! On the other hand, I’ve found it useful for translation in the other direction – you can usually get the gist of meaning from the result. This has allowed me to comment (in English) on a few twitters from Thais (in Thai) at times, and from the responses, it seems I wasn’t completely off the mark in understanding what they were on about.

One tip if you ever want to get any English translated into another language by automated software – use very short and simple sentences, where no ambiguity is possible. I’ve experimented with this from English to French, using different variations of a few sentences to express the same meaning. Some (the short, simple versions) were translated almost perfectly. But longer, convoluted versions mostly ended up as complete gibberish in French.

]]> By: Martyn http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/babelwithme-enters-the-thai-conversation/#comment-1698 Martyn Tue, 07 Jul 2009 09:35:57 +0000 http://womenlearnthai.com/?p=5965#comment-1698 Interesting to say the least but having read Talen's comment I think I will also leave it well alone. Thai is probably one of those languages that could indeed produce 'push her off a house' results with regularity. The Thai language of one word having many meanings, tonal tongue, could lead to many misunderstandings. I think a Thai/Western partnership using this would need a good understanding of each others language to decipher some very odd comments. Perhaps they could rename it BabbleWith.me. I checked out the About link and it quotes.... 'LifeChurch.tv developed BabelWith.me to communicate with people around the globe.' Excuse the pun but heaven forbid the kind of smutty conversations that are going to help fill the Church coffers. A good concept but I'm not sure if Thai will be one of its better tools. Interesting to say the least but having read Talen’s comment I think I will also leave it well alone. Thai is probably one of those languages that could indeed produce ‘push her off a house’ results with regularity. The Thai language of one word having many meanings, tonal tongue, could lead to many misunderstandings. I think a Thai/Western partnership using this would need a good understanding of each others language to decipher some very odd comments. Perhaps they could rename it BabbleWith.me. I checked out the About link and it quotes…. ‘LifeChurch.tv developed BabelWith.me to communicate with people around the globe.’
Excuse the pun but heaven forbid the kind of smutty conversations that are going to help fill the Church coffers. A good concept but I’m not sure if Thai will be one of its better tools.

]]> By: Catherine Wentworth http://womenlearnthai.com/index.php/babelwithme-enters-the-thai-conversation/#comment-1697 Catherine Wentworth Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:31:19 +0000 http://womenlearnthai.com/?p=5965#comment-1697 'I wanted to push her off a house' Oh dear! You are lucky that Ms Pookie is such a sweet thing :-D When a combination of words can totally change the meaning, trouble is not far behind (Hmm... I wonder if I can get a bunch of those together for a post...) I used to play around with Babel Fish Translate years back, only with French. If you put an English sentence into BF to get translated to French, then do it back again, what a mess. It's funny, but in a messy kind of way. But no throwing people off of houses which is MUCH more exciting. ‘I wanted to push her off a house’

Oh dear! You are lucky that Ms Pookie is such a sweet thing :-D

When a combination of words can totally change the meaning, trouble is not far behind (Hmm… I wonder if I can get a bunch of those together for a post…)

I used to play around with Babel Fish Translate years back, only with French. If you put an English sentence into BF to get translated to French, then do it back again, what a mess. It’s funny, but in a messy kind of way. But no throwing people off of houses which is MUCH more exciting.

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