Are online translator systems reliable? Maybe sí and maybe no

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COMPARISON TRANSLATIONS BELOW (HAVE SOME FUN YOURSELF!)

There are plenty of translating systems on the Internet. The most widely used is Google, with some 60 languages, mainly to get the gist of what a document or website says (or doesn't). Its widespread use may have more to do with inertia than anything else: 'well, I'm on Google, might as well use it...' Our experience is that it is not very good at all, and is more likely to provide a good laugh rather than an intelligable translation. The very first free translator was Babel Fish, now called Bing Translator. There's Linguee, which doesn't translate directly but will put a phrase or word into a context, which helps with understanding rather than transliterating a word. There's Reverso, which you can download and have on your computer, though that isn't really necessary. There's lots more, from Apertium to WorldLingo. The thing is, how reliable are any of them?>>>

The German association of interpreters and translators, BDÜ (Federal Association of Translators and Interpreters, or Bundesverband der Dolmetscher und Übersetzer eV), carried out a quality control study last year on Google's admittedly very powerful translator. The conclusion was that, yes, it was possible to understand such things as recipes, news articles or instruction manuals - but the reader had to do a lot of interpreting while still not clear on plenty of meanings within a translated piece.

This gets more complicated when a word has more than one meaning. It has to be put into a context and a machine can't do that yet. For a little time, when we were doing a lot of close deadline translations, we used the same system then used by NASA and the Pentagon, the name of which escapes me now. We gave up using it because it was more trouble, and took longer, to re-interpret what came out at the other end, than to write the translation out in the first place.

Another thing is that Google has no room for irony, sarcasm or ambiguity. The machinery had real trouble interpreting or even understanding a concept. Some people are like that, too.

This, of course, is no surprise, since irony, sarcasm and ambiguity are subject to interpretation by a living person, who gives it thought. Then there are always people who don't get it, aren't there?

A language you don't know

What happens when you need to transmit something to someone in a language you don't understand yourself? How, in other words, can you be sure it is at least vaguely understandable?

There's just no way you can check, so experts agree that it is best to avoid translations into a language you don't understand. Which completely defeats the purpose.

However, an online translator can be useful to put something into your own mother tongue. The result may be full of mistakes but you will get the gist in most cases.

In any case, can we expect machines to replace human beings any time soon? Gereon Frahling, mathematician and founder of Linguee doesn't think so. He believes that translation software development has just about reached its limit.

COMPARATIVE TRANSLATIONS - HAVE SOME FUN!

The original piece taken directly from the text above, as painstakingly written by Prospero in the middle of the night:

Another thing is that Google has no room for irony, sarcasm or ambiguity. The machinery had real trouble interpreting or even understanding a concept. Some people are like that, too.
This, of course, is no surprise, since irony, sarcasm and ambiguity are subject to interpretation by a living person, who gives it thought. Then there are always people who don't get it, aren't there?

Translated by Google Translator into Spanish:

Otra cosa es que Google no tiene espacio para la ironía, el sarcasmo o la ambigüedad. La maquinaria había serios problemas de interpretación o incluso la comprensión de un concepto. Algunas personas son así, también.
Esto, por supuesto, no es ninguna sorpresa, ya que la ironía, el sarcasmo y la ambigüedad están sujetas a la interpretación de una persona viva, que le da pensó. Entonces siempre hay personas que no lo entienden, no están allí?

...and back into English:

Another thing is that Google has no room for irony, sarcasm or ambiguity. The machinery had serious problems of interpretation or understanding of a concept. Some people are like that, too.
This, of course, is no surprise, as irony, sarcasm and ambiguity are subject to the interpretation of a living person who gives thought. Then there are always people who do not understand, are not there? 

Not too bad - but there is no need for the machine to understand any concepts.

Same paragraphs translated by Apertium into Spanish

Otra cosa es que Google tiene ninguna habitación para ironía, sarcasmo o ambigüedad. La maquinaria tuvo el problema real que interpreta o incluso entendiendo un concepto. Algunas personas son gusta que, también.
Esto, naturalmente, es ninguna sorpresa, desde ironía, el sarcasmo y la ambigüedad son sujetos a interpretación por una persona viviente, quién da pensó. Entonces hay siempre personas que no lo consiguen, no es allí?

Now it's getting worse - you can get the gist if you have Spanish, but if you don't ...
So let's try putting this text into Romanian, then back into English, via  - from the (bad) Spanish translation above.

Un alt lucru este că Google nu are camera de ironie, sarcasm sau ambiguitate.  Echipamentul chiar au probleme reale care-l interpretează sau înţelegerea unui concept.  Unii oameni sunt ca venim, de asemenea.
Aceasta, bineînţeles, nu este de mirare, de ironie, de sarcasm şi ambiguitatea este subiect pentru interpretarea de către o persoană vie, care oferă gândi.  Apoi există întotdeauna oameni care nu-l obţine, nu este acolo? 

...and back into English:

Another thing is that Google does not have the camera with irony, sarcasm or ambiguity.   Equipment even have real problems which it interprets or understanding a concept.   Some of the people are that we come, too.
This, of course, it is not a surprise, irony, sarcasm and ambiguity is subject to interpretation by a person alive, which provides thought about it.   Then there are always people who do not obtain it, it's not there?  

Try it yourself, have some fun - if you've got this far down, you don't have a lot to do, do you? (Now there's a concept!)
WorldLingo                      Babylon           Apertium
Google Translate              Promt               Translation2

...there are more but you can find them yourself.