Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (14 comments)
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Reading Machine Translation Is Fun!

in News by DaveKellett

Monday, March 01, 2010 - 04:59 PM

Do you enjoy reading in-depth articles about cartoonists that were originally written in other languages...and which were then put through Google's Translation services? If so, head on over here for guaranteed good times.

Here's two particularly fun machine translations to note from the article:

1.) "But life, just as the school's cafeteria, do not always serve you the pattie requested."
2.) "Like millions of other people, Gloria and Dave were able to sacrifice their childhood dreams on the altar of the mortgage account to the supermarket."

Based on the fact that there are 45 comments below the article, I can only assume that it sounds better before the language algorithms went to work on it. Ahh, machine translation: You're so close, and still so, so far. :)

[EDITED TO ADD: For those asking, here's the English version of the strip they asked us to make to accompany the article.

Patriot


Posts: 12

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Apr 2009
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 01:18 AM (#55194)

Haha, priceless! It seems they thought your name was Dave Kettle though :P

Dave Cauldron, I like it :D


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Patriot


Posts: 12

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Apr 2009
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 01:19 AM (#55195)
Haha, priceless! It seems they thought your name was Dave Kettle though :P Dave Cauldron, I like it :D -- something went wrong while posting. I do hope I didn't doublepost
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karlcomic


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Mar 2010
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 03:21 AM (#55196)

I do remember the day when Dave announced he had quit his job to be Komixai Bmatl full time.

How is that working out, btw?


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ndf


Posts: 12

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Jul 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 04:29 AM (#55197)

I noticed the Kellett/Kettle error too. I wonder if they ran a machine translation on your site first.

I also can't help wondering what a Csglurih is. :-)


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Kestrel6


From: Houston TX

Posts: 10

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Aug 2007
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 04:53 AM (#55198)

oh man, you have GOT to work that "life" comment into a strip sometime! It just *feels* like a perfect Sheldon punchline.


--
Blessed are the PURR in heart!
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skaratso


Posts: 15

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Sep 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 06:46 AM (#55201)

Care to post the original of this comic, Dave?
(http://go.calcalist.co.il/pic/contralmanager/sd10 02161.jpg)

Seeing as how most of us don't read Hebrew...

At least give us the original text..


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skaratso


Posts: 15

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Sep 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 06:47 AM (#55202)

Care to post the original of this comic, Dave?

http://go.calcalist.co.il/pic/contralmanager/sd100 2161.jpg

Seeing as how most of us don't read Hebrew...

At least give us the original text..


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cucui


Posts: 25

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Jan 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 07:19 AM (#55203)

Fun with translation: http://translationparty.com/

Enter a phrase in English and it will bounce back and forth between auto translations to Japanese and English until it finds an "equalibrium" where the translations too and from aren't mangled any further.

So "But life, just as the school's cafeteria, do not always serve you the pattie requested." becomes "But life is a school cafeteria, as usual, is please do not provide the requested Patty."


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Violet
Violet


From: Seattle

Posts: 16

Registered:
Nov 2006
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 09:03 AM (#55205)
they did not understand how you can live differently

Yes. How anyone can live differently than you two, I have no idea.
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batbaby


Posts: 1

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May 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 09:20 AM (#55206)

I think my favorite were all the comments about no kids.

"No children? FAIL!"


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claire1220


Posts: 4

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Jul 2008
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 09:31 AM (#55208)

Seems like Google is actually using the Battlestar Galactica Hybrid to produce their translations. Which may bring this article to the level of prophecy.

And they've come dangerously close to translating Dave's last name as "Cthulhu". Again, prophetic?


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DaveKellett
DaveKellett


From: Los Anga-lees

Posts: 1533

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Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Tuesday, March 02, 2010 - 05:09 PM (#55215)
I love that the last name got mangled, yeah. I honestly can't tell if that was a machine translation error or if they just made the oldest journalistic mistake on the books. :)

And the comments! I love how people keep missing the part in the article where our daughter is mentioned. Go figure! People read what they want to read, I suppose.

Also, I edited the post to include a link to the English cartoon (scroll up). Sorry I hadn't included that before!

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Nofar


Posts: 1

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Mar 2010
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - 11:06 AM (#55226)

Apparently I'm the only Israeli willing to comment on this :) Dave, they got your name perfectly correct whenever they mentioned it.
The "no kids" comment was a joke about Jewish mothers that just does not translate.
The "life" comment is pretty silly in Hebrew too, but not as funny as google's translation. A more accurate translation would be "But life, just as the school's cafeteria, does not always serve you the hamburger you requested."

And in case you didn't figure it out by now, the machine translation is abysmal.
Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to read it again. Funniest article I've read in a while...


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DaveKellett
DaveKellett


From: Los Anga-lees

Posts: 1533

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May 2006
Re: Reading Machine Translation Is Fun! (Score: 1)
posted Wednesday, March 03, 2010 - 12:33 PM (#55229)
I'm really glad to hear that the machine translation is to blame -- that makes me feel much, much better.

I sorta suspected as much, but still it's nice to have confirmation. :)

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