Can't speak German? Translate online.
by César Gonzalez, Aztech IT Services
If you live in Mazatlán or visit Mazatlán you will find that only a small part of the population speaks English and most of the publications are written in Spanish. So, when you are living in a country where a different language is spoken you will need quick help. Fortunately for everyone, the internet offers several useful tools you can use for free and they are just a few clicks away.
The first thing you need to do is connect your computer to the internet. There are several websites online which offer translations in real time. You only need to write the text you would like to translate, or highlight it from another website or document, and then copy and paste on the first section of the translator (see below for translation sites). After that, you need to select the language to be translated to, and finally click on the “translate” option to get the work done.
Even if the online translators don’t do a perfect translation, they will help you to understand between 70% and 90% of the meaning of a paragraph, depending on the complexity of the grammar. Some of them offer the option of translating a complete website if you enter the link in the translation section.
There are also some free toolbars that can be installed in your internet browser, internet explorer or firefox, so the toolbar will automatically suggest a translation when you are visiting a website written in a different language. However, in order to install the appropriate translation toolbar in your computer we suggest you get in touch with your tech support since there are also on the internet different scam websites that can install a virus or spyware on your computer instead.
In order to visit the appropriate websites with translation tools we share with you a couple of them so you can add them to your Favorites list: www.microsofttranslator.com, babelfish.yahoo.com.
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I would not overlook Google Translate (http://translate.google.com). Google offers a variety of translation options including an option built into the popular Google toolbar
Thank you for your comment Geoff, I can’t agree more with you, the google website you suggested and the google toolbar are excellent for the purpose.
The latest (non beta) versions of Google’s Chrome browser (7.0.517.44 for the Mac) has Google translate integrated into the menu bar. Whenever a foreign language web page loads the translator appears and asks if and how you want it translated.
In Firefox there are a number of translators available that integrate with the browser as add-ons. These are found at the mozilla add-ons site. Google is available. I use ImTranslator which works well. There are a number to choose from.
Online translation tools are definitely invaluable if all you need is the gist of the meaning. Obviously, the problem with them is that they’re automated, so they’re unlikely to be able to understand the subtleties of language.
If a translation is important rather than just trivial, you can’t leave it to chance and that’s when you have to bring in a professional translation company. When it comes down to it, human translation will always be superior to a machine.
Well, yes online translation tools are a bit helpful for a simple way of projects however it is still more relevant to use legal translation service I am not saying that online translation tools are useless but based on my experience about this kind of translation service I am not really satisfied for they provided me an absurd translation which was inaccurate.
It would be safer to apply human’s touch to the serious matter than using the machine.
It is true that this kind of automated translation tools can be very useful when browsing the web. They can help you grasp the meaning of a website displayed in a language they don’t speak for instance; but when looking for serious blog posts or articles on foreign newspapers, would you consider these tools as reliable? For any type of translation, be it financial, medical or legal translation, it is always better to use a professional service.