These are the results.
Not long after I started writing here, I began using Google Translate to expand my reach to other countries. What hadn’t occurred to me at the time was the fact that Facebook could automatically translate my posts into any language, so it wasn’t necessary for me to go through the time and effort of translating them myself.
I did however find Google Translate to be most helpful when I was using Messenger, and it was there that I really began to learn the intricacies of the app. For instance, for the best results, it is best to use more formal language as opposed to using slang, colloquialisms, and contractions (ie. we’re vs we are). Using everyday language could result in a garbled, unreadable message being sent, leaving the reader laughing uproariously and wondering what the hell you’re trying to even say (Yes, it happened to me a few times).
It’s also best to get input from a native speaker of the language you are translating into so that you will know whether or not what you are writing makes any sense. Using input and corrections from some of my friends in Afghanistan, I was able to greatly improve my skills when translating from English, going from confusing gibberish to perfect Pashto in very little time using Google Translate.
The Message Game.
For some reason, the Message Game popped into my head yesterday. You’ve probably played it at some point with a group of your friends standing in line, as someone whispers a message into the ear of the first person, who then turns to whisper the message to the next person in line and so on until the end. The goal is to have the message received at the very end be the exact same as the one that started at the beginning. It can be almost comical sometimes with beginning and ending messages that don’t resemble each other in the least.
I thought I would try the game with a bit of a twist. I would begin with the message “The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog” in English, then progress through a number of languages on a variety of translation apps to see what the results would be.
The apps.
I downloaded these apps to my Android device:
- Google Translate
- Microsoft Translator
- All Languages Translator
- Talking Translator
- Language Translator
The languages.
The phrase will be translated sequentially from one language to the next, starting with English, then French, Punjabi, etc. down the list until finishing back at English again. The languages used and their order of sequence is:
- English
- French
- Punjabi
- Filipino (Tagalog)
- Pashto
- Russian
- Spanish
- Japanese
- Hungarian
- Urdu
- English
Google Translate.
This has been my go-to and pretty much the only language translation app I use. Aside from ease of use it also has perhaps the largest selection of languages available for translation. I use it on my laptop and my Android device, though the ads in Android are a bit of a drag now. There are no ads on the Windows version.
End result: The quick brown fox jumped on the slow dog. (The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog).
Microsoft Translator.
It was my first time using this app and will be my last. Seems easy enough to use but somewhere along the way the translation goes all to hell. I tried this three times and chose the results that appeared on two of them.
Blech.
End result: WTF??
But it also translates Klingon!!
It was also the only app out of the five with this feature. Frankly, they would have been better off ditching the Klingon and focusing on fixing its deficiencies in order to put out a decent product.
All Languages Translator.
This one could be my second choice as it’s very friendly and has some good features, unfortunately, I find it to be deficient in the number of languages available to translate. For instance I was unable to translate into Pashto.
End result: The quick brown fox jumped on the slow dog. (The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.)
Talking Translator.
Friendly enough but the screen layout doesn’t work for me. It was clearly designed so that both people can see the screen at the same time standing across from each other. This app is also lacking languages and also cannot translate Pashto.
End result: A quick brown fox jumped over a slow dog. (The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.)
Language Translator.
Not enough languages (again no Pashto) and awkward to use. Not a fan.
End result: A quick brown fox jumped over a slow dog. (The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog.)
Share your experiences.
If you have any stories of conversations lost in translation, any tips to share, or have a favourite language translation app send me an email or message and tell me about it.
The Advocate-Equalizer 