tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29995585.post-56656137777107748132007-09-11T11:34:00.000+02:002007-09-12T09:14:38.919+02:00I recently spent some time playing around with the beta version of Windows Live Translator (AKA Systran), which is now online. The verdict? Not nearly as bad as I thought...but it doesn't exactly have me worried about losing my job, either.<br /><br />I started with a quote by General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt from an article my translation team recently took on for a client:<br /><br /><blockquote>“Europe today is the major force for environmental innovation. We – General Electric - are therefore investing in environmentally cleaner technology because it will increase our revenue, our value and our profits...Not because it is trendy or moral, but because it will accelerate our growth and make us more competitive”. </blockquote><br /><br />The Windows Live Translator French Translation:<br /><br /><blockquote>La « Europe est aujourd'hui la force principale pour l'innovation environnementale. Nous - General Electric - investissons donc dans une technologie dans l'environnement plus propre parce qu'elle augmentera notre revenu, notre valeur et nos bénéfices pas parce qu'il est dernier cri ou moral, mais parce qu'elle accélérera notre croissance et nous rendra plus concurrentiels ».</blockquote><br /><br />A translation by a professional translator:<br /><br /><blockquote>« L’Europe est, aujourd’hui, la principale force en matière d’innovation environnementale. Chez General Electric, nous investissons dans une technologie plus propre parce que nous pensons que cela va augmenter notre chiffre d’affaires, notre valeur et nos bénéfices…Ce n’est donc pas pour faire “tendance” ou par moralité, mais pour accélérer notre croissance et nous rendre plus compétitifs. »</blockquote><br /><br />The machine translation (Windows Live Translator) is clearly OK if all you need is to get the gist of a fairly short chunk of text (the system can handle up to 250 words at a time). However, when I tried to have it translate the Immelt quote in context, it seemed to get hung up on punctuation, leaving everything between the opening and closing quotes in English...oops!<br /><br />As with any machine translation, the results are (at best) comprehensible but clunky and definitely not suitable for translating outgoing communications or any document intended for publication.Sarahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13894724239391963055noreply@blogger.com