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Automatic translation definitely is a good thing. I have seen automatic translation program floating around and some website owners’ proudly display the flag(s) to show the language(s) their website can be translated to. However, how reliable are those translation program? How much human intervention do you think we need before we can get a translation result that makes sense?

To give you an idea why do I ask these questions, let me show you some real examples. For simplicity, I have selected for the first example from the site that already have the official translation, and I have selected a Japanese to English translation so at least I understand what is the content.

Here is the announcement in Japanese from JAXA site under the Hot Topics column for the selection of the astronouts.

星出宇宙飛行士、スペースシャトル搭乗決定！

「きぼう」日本実験棟打上げ2便目のスペースシャトル（STS-124／1J）にJAXAの星出彰彦宇宙飛行士の搭乗が決定しました。

平成20年初め頃に「きぼう」船内実験室と共に、スペースシャトル「アトランティス号」へ搭乗し、国際宇宙ステーション（ISS）に約2週間程度滞在する予定です。

今回の発表により、フライトを予定しているJAXAの日本人宇宙飛行士は、STS-123の土井隆雄宇宙飛行士（クルーサポートアストロノート山崎直子宇 宙飛行士）、STS-124の星出彰彦宇宙飛行士、STS-127で長期滞在する若田光一宇宙飛行士（バックアップ搭乗員野口聡一宇宙飛行士）の3名とな りました。

Here is what will you get if you ask Altavista to translate it from the Japanese to English. (Altavista translation is powered by Systran):

Star coming out astronaut, space shuttle embarkation decision!

“It came and the ぼ う” Japanese experimental ridge launch 2nd flight space shuttle (STS-124/1J) embarkation of the star coming out Akihiko astronaut of JAXA decided.

It is the schedule where with “it comes in around 2008 beginning and the ぼ う” inboard laboratory, embarks to space shuttle the “Atlantis number”, the international space station (ISS) approximately 2 weeks stays. By the latest announcement, the Japanese astronaut of JAXA which plans flight, the Doi Takao astronaut of STS-123 (the clue support astronaut Yamazaki Naoko astronaut), the star being present Akihiko astronaut of STS-124, young the rice field which long term stays with STS-127 Koichi astronaut (the backup flight crew Noguchi Soichi astronaut) became 3 names.

And here is what the English version of that annoucement:

Astronaut Hoshide selected as Space Shuttle crewmember

JAXA Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide was selected as a crewmember for the second Space Shuttle mission to assemble the Japanese Experiment Module “Kibo” (STS-124/1J.) He is scheduled to fly to the International Space Station (ISS) on the Space Shuttle Atlantis with the Kibo Pressurized Module in early 2008. He will stay at the ISS for about two weeks.

Following this selection, three Japanese astronauts are currently scheduled to fly on space shuttles, namely Astronaut Takao Doi on STS-123 (with Astronaut Naoko Yamazaki as a crew support astronaut,) Astronaut Akihiko Hoshide on STS-124, and Astronaut Koichi Wakata (with Astronaut Soichi Noguchi as a backup crewmember) on STS-127 to stay at the ISS for a prolonged period.

First, the Japanese Astronout Hoshide’s name is directly translated into Star Coming Out Astronout. Systran simply took the two characters Hoshi (star) and De (out) and translated it literally into ’star coming out’. Thus what should be Astronout Akihito Hoshide in English was translated to ’star coming out Akihito astronout.’ What a pity!

That’s not all. Japanese English may be too abstract for you. OK, what about Spanish English or English to Spanish?

Let me show you the second example. Suppose your map provide a direction to an address in North Memorial Parkway in Huntsville, Alabama such as this:

Huntsville Address:
2000 North Memorial Parkway
Huntsville, Alabama 35805

This is what will you get from Systran as well as Altavista:

Dirección De Huntsville:
Parkway Conmemorativo Del norte 2000
Huntsville, Alabama 35805

Will your mapquest generate the map for you?

That’s what I know so far. Just wonder, after seeing these examples, would you still consider to use those automatic translation software? I would like to hear from you.

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