Technabob » translation

Google Adds Latin Translation: Now You Can Swear in a Dead Language!

Range — Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:23:52 +0000

While I did have to take Latin in 7th and 8th grade, most of it has either been stashed away deep in the recesses of my brain or forgotten. Probably the latter. However, I really like the fact that Google Translate can now translate into Latin, which is considered a dead language.

It’s probably of limited use for most of us, but I’d also like to see Ancient Greek, and other dead languages in Google Translate. It’s important to keep these languages alive in some form. Plus, you can get all these crazy swear words in Latin, and translate all those Latin sayings that you find on your dollar bills and whatnot. Maybe the kids will start using Latin again instead of the shortcodes they use in all their text messages.

You can try it out here.

[via Read Write Web]

Translate Emoticons From Japanese to English

Range — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 14:26:53 +0000

If you thought that emoticons were the same in all languages, you’d be dead wrong. Just check out the differences between English emoticons and their Japanese equivalents courtesy of Wired’s handy English-to-Japanese emoticon cheat sheet.

I guess this makes sense, since in sign language, American English is pretty different from British English. This means that all of those teenage Japanese girls who are obsessed with texting are using a whole different set of emoticons. I wonder what the Japanese equivalent of “OMGWTF” is?

[via Wired]

Fansub Failure: When Things Don’T Go According to Keikaku

Lambert Varias — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 17:23:25 +0000

Anime fans are no doubt familiar with fansubs – short for ‘fan-subtitled’ – unauthorized translations of anime. The Japanese language isn’t the easiest language to master (is there a rank of that somewhere?), and so the quality of fansubs vary depending on the, well, fans. Sankaku Complex posted a few of the fansub fails, whether due to inadequate understanding of Japanese, laziness, or sheer stupidity, as is the case with the screenshot below:

And my personal favorite:

I know that fansubs are labors of love, done for free and for the good of millions of non-Japanese speaking anime fans, but come on. Seriously. Let’s have some standards here. Here are some more fails:

More at Sankaku Complex. Fansubbers, feel free to share your side of the story. How hard is it to sub? How long does it take? Have any of you been sued? And where’s the car?

Six in One Translator Planned for Nintendo Dsiware

Alisha K. — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 12:23:11 +0000

With so much bigger news pouring out of E3, it’s easy to miss the smaller, more interesting bits, like a mysterious DSiWare title that appeared on Nintendo’s official planned release lists. Six in One Translator–a working title, we’re told, along with a grand total of nothing else. But with a title like that, could it be anything other than a language tool?

Several language-focused games are available for the Nintendo DS around the world, but this sounds more like it might be a simple translation tool rather than an aide to support language study, as with games like My Japanese Coach. At any rate, for those looking to use a Nintendo DSi as a multi-purpose device, apps like this might be more intriguing than clock and calculator applications.

[via Joystiq Nintendo]