Cannot understand my language? Technology helps.
by Volker Weber
My readership is quite international (see small map in the sidebar), so I should write everything in English, right? Wrong. Most of my readers speak German as their first language and learned English in school. I learned half a dozen languages, but I can only speak and write two of those with confidence. So I like to write German in about half of my posts, to make my German readers feel at home here.
Thomas suggested today that I put a translate button on my site for those people who do not understand the languages I write in. Thomas is from Sweden so his native language is one that I do not understand at all. But technology helps. If I encounter a language on the web that I do not understand, I use technology to help me out. For the iPhone there is Google Translate and Microsoft Translator, and probably a whole lot more.
I suggested to Thomas to use a browser plugin instead of me putting in a translate link. Since he was on the iPhone he shared my German post with Microsoft Translator and got the same one in English. Exciting times we live in.
Which tools do you use?
Comments
Da ich Chrome Nutzer bin, nutze ich das darin integrierte Übersetzungstool.
Englisch klappt vom Verständnis her bei mir so, bei allen anderen Sprachen fragt Chrome automatisch ob übersetzt werden soll.
Davon abgesehen, dass ich noch keinen Weg gefunden habe eine URL direkt zu übergeben, finde ich deepl.com sehr hilfreich.
Google Chrome for websites, Google Translate for anything else.
Thanks for pointing in Microsoft Translator for iOS.
Just installed it and from German to English seems way better than Google Translate.
Ouch. I've always been under the impression that your German-language posts were more relevant to German visitors, while your English-language posts were aimed at international readers. I don't know where I got that idea, but I've always been absolutely certain of it. So I've generally skipped the German posts. I have a variety of tools that could translate them, but I usually haven't done so. And now you're telling me I've missed lots of good content over the years. Bummer.
Rob, you are generally right. But recently I wrote more in German. You would not have missed much.
I use Bing with the Microsoft Translator plug-in to keep up with you. ;)
I'm also using deepL, the quality is impressive
Till now Google Translator, but now Microsoft Translator! Great Safari Plug-in.
Here in Belgium German is our third language, but still difficult.
Thanks!
LD
Google Chrome Browser for me with Google Translate. I rarely miss a post - German or English. :-)
deepl is really impressive. My personal observation is that it especially outperforms Google translate in translating complete sentences. Even technical documentations get translated in a very good quality.
Until now, i haven‘t used any translation mechanisms for whole texts. Google translate for words.
But now... installed this microsoft translator and ... wow.
Thanks a lot.
For texts I use Google Translate and Microsoft Translator on iOS - the OCR & in-place translation is really awesome at times. In the desktop I use Google Translate via Web UI.
For individual words I usually turn to leo.dict.org.
Good point Ragnar, I forgot about leo.org - it's really good for translating even quite exotic individual words. I use it, and the discussion forums quite a lot.
Google translate for “weird” languages. That is everything else than de, sv (no, dk), en, es and some fr/it.
For individual words, there also is linguee.de which comes in handy once in a while.
They show translation in context using files found on the web in both languages.
Example from my field of work: https://www.linguee.com/english-german/search?source=auto&query=stoßfuge
:-)
I usually don’t read languages I don’t understand at all. Highly recommend the online dictionaries of dict.cc for individual words and expressions. Great iOS app as well.
So far Google Translate, didn't know about Microsoft Translator ... very good tool!
DeepL - number one for complete sentences. By far outperforming anything else I have tried out so far.
Google Translate for iOS and Chrome Browser translation in everyday use and for exotic languages.
In addition, dict.leo.org and for English: Oxford English Dictionary (not really for translations, but very valuable).
I'll need to try Microsoft Translator.
DeepL is really impressive. I just learned about them, they are a neighbour of us, just next door Im Mediapark, Cologne, Germany.
DeepL ist oft beeindruckend aber taugt nur fuer eine Handvoll europaeischer Sprachen (gerademal sieben, Google bietet 104 Sprachen an) und man kann sich die Aussprache nicht vorspielen lassen. Aber die Resultate sind Google Translate und Bing Translate in der Regel ueberlegen.
Google Translate fuer alle Sprachen die von DeepL nicht abgedeckt werden. Und zum Anhoeren der Aussprache.
Bing Translate zum gelegentlichen Crosscheck weil man Google Translate nicht alles glauben kann.
Dict.cc ist prima zum Schmoekern und fuer knifflige Faelle.
Ich habe meist zu tun mit Deutsch, Englisch, Indonesisch, Chinesisch und Japanisch.
As someone who put a lot of effort into learning German, only to return to the UK into an industry which made little/no effort to use anything but English, I take great delight in trying to read German posts.
To assist I use reverso.net which I was introduced to during my course as it includes extra features such as Conjugation and context so you can see options for that snippet you put in to be translated. I have not compared this with other tools but the extras help me believe I have not given up yet.
Microsoft Translator has also a nice Apple Watch App: Speak the text, get a written translation but also the option to let it read out loud to hear how it is pronounced.
Danke für den Tipp, das probiere ich aus.
