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[Phys-l] Automatic translations



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Those interested in automatic translators will probably find this link useful:

http://translate.google.com/about/intl/en_ALL/

It is about how Google Translate works, and why it usually outperforms other automatic translators. To verify this claim, I translated a piece from English to Russian. The result was not perfect but it was very good.

1) Here is what to do:

*) Go to http://translate.google.com
*) Specify languages, for example, English --> Russian
*) Paste (or type) the text to be translated (into the left text box).
*) Click on the “translate” button

The translated text will appear at once. You can just read it or cut- and-paste it into another document.

2) Translated text (that appears in the right window) can be improved, by someone who knows both languages. When the translation has finished, if you hover the pointer over the translated text (in the right box) it will highlight a word or phrase.

If you then left-click on the highlighted text it will offer you a list of alternate translations. If you click on one of the alternates then it will substitute that reading into the output to improve the way it reads and / or the shade of meaning.

3) And here is another situation in which this tool can be very useful. Suppose I give you the address of a Russian website, such as,

h*t*t*p*:/*/w*w*w.forum-grad.r*u (but without asterisks)

You type it into a browser and disciver that the text is in Russian, which you do not know. To see the translated content of that website in English do the following:

*) Go to Google Translate
*) Specify languages, in this case, Rusian -->English
*) Paste (or type) the h*t*t*p*:/*/w*w*w.forum-grad.r*u (but without asterisks) into the left box
*) The same address appears in the right box, automatically.
*) Click the “translate” button and wait till the translated content appears.

4) Another possibility is to translate the content of a file, for example, in the pdf or rtf format. This will produce the file containing the translated text. Perhaps someone will describe the step- by-step procedure for us. I do not know how to accomplish this.

5) Also see
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/features/how-google-translate-works-2353594.html

=======================================================================
Ludwik Kowalski, whose profile is at:

http://pages.csam.montclair.edu/~kowalski/my_profile.html