03.04.98 English to Spanish

[susan larsson]

>> On Wed, 4 Mar 1998, John Walker wrote:
>> > At 11:36 PM 3/3/98 -0800, you wrote:
>> > >Has anyone had success or attempted to translate english to spanish
on the
>> > >web? Either as a cgi or using a translation service? I've seen 10
cents a
>> > >word is this that the norm?
>> > >
>> > check
>> >
>> > http://www.networx.on.ca/~jwalker
>> >
>> > Translations English, Spanish, French, Italian etc.
>> 
>> Or AltaVista's famed babelfish, as featured on NPR and elsewhere:
>> http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com
>> 
>> It's free.  Translates a lot.  It's great.  'nuff said.

It depends on your goal. If you want someone to have an idea of what is on
your page, and perhaps a good giggle that will make them remember it, by
all means - use alta vista's babelfish. In many/most cases, the basic idea
is understandable, particularly with some understanding of the source
language. But if your purpose is communication on a professional level, it
is hard to avoid the human interface (i.e., a translator). 

If you would like to test out babelfish, enter a sentence or two, translate
through a couple of language pairs, and then back to English - see what you
get. It is always entertaining...

susan (who is glad that npr said translators would be able to keep their
day jobs for a few decades to come while the machines were developed...)
-- 
Susan Larsson
Swedish to English        Medical - Business - Technical
Telephone 1 (360) 466-3304   Fax 1 (360) 466-0185
LaConner WA USA       E-mail slarsson at ncia.com 
Member Swedish Association of Professional Translators