Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Google translating this blog

There seems to be a lot of non French people trying to read this blog lately, and most of them are using Google Translate to get something they can understand. You have to be aware that Google Translate is doing a terrible job at it. I think the main reason is that I am typing everything on Qwerty keyboards, and thus not bothering with accents and some other special characters involved in the French language. I am also using a bit of slang. The resulting is often something that doesn't have at all the meaning it has in French.

Having a look at the previous post translated, the last paragraph turns out to be funny: [Google-EN] "At this time there, I have done evil, and I am furious." for [FR] "Sur ce coup la, je me suis fait avoir mechamment, et je suis furieux." which means more something like [EN] "On this one, I got badly owned and I am furious". I am not sure where the "I have done evil" comes from.

I think Google is trying to make it look worse than it is. OMG CONSPIRACY.

I would add that the reason I maintain this blog in French, is that it's mostly the only place where I can still use my mother tongue. And when you realize that sometimes you struggle to find a word in your first language while it comes fairly easily in English, it means that every exercise is good.

5 comments:

Ange Albertini said...

Garde-le en francais d'ailleurs, ca restera plus authentique ;)

MeiK said...

"I think Google is trying to make it look worse than it is. OMG CONSPIRACY." << c'est pas "zOMG CONSPIRACY !!1!!!" plutôt ?

Silkut said...

"And when you realize that sometimes you struggle to find a word in your first language while it comes fairly easily in English"

Tellement vrai.

bartavelle said...

Moi j'aurais dit "comme JCVD".

Sid said...

C'est toujours plus jubilatoire de dire du mal des gens dans sa langue maternelle. Question de finesse dans le vocabulaire...