Language learning stacks

Richmond richmondmathewson at gmail.com
Mon Jul 12 12:06:34 EDT 2010


On 07/12/2010 07:04 PM, Lynn Fredricks wrote:
>> I recall a linguistics professor years ago telling the story
>> of the supercomputer translator going from English to Russian
>> and back again.  "The spirit is willing but the flesh is
>> weak" came back as "The vodka is good but the meat is rotten."  :)
>>      
> That's probably a saying in Russia already :-)
>
>    
>> No, it's not "reliable" in any absolute sense, but it is very
>> useful once you have an adequate knowledge base in the
>> languages you are translating to and from.  For single words
>> it is quick and lists synonyms/approximate equivalents in
>> various forms.  For short phrases it gets you in the ballpark
>> with verb forms and tenses.  But to lean on it
>> unquestioningly would be linguistic suicide, you're right.
>> Still, it's an invaluable tool for my current needs.
>>      
> It can be very, very useful. I used it myself when I need a quick and dirty
> translation of some text, but as you say, for single words or getting the
> gist of something is where it shines. I wouldn't want someone to learn how
> to conjugate from it though.
>
>    

I bet trying to translate "conjugate" that way could prove most 
enlightening.



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