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Monday, April 25, 2011

How to effectively mangle peices of text using google translate

Google translate is excellent for mangling text, in the tradition of "My hovercraft is full of eels". However, There are some subtleties to it that must be discussed. First, the selection of source text. I like to use forum posts made by trolls, as well as ones by those venting moral outrage. These are amusing because the mistranslations may end up turning the statements into statements opposing the poster's position. A good place to find these are the talk pages of Wikipedia articles, particularly those dealing with controversial and sex related topics. Second, the selection of languages to translate to. I generally switch between language groups at each translation, a typical sequence being: English-->Russian-->English-->Spanish-->English-->Danish-->English-->Swahili
-->English-->Japanese-->English-->Arabic-->English

The sequence of groups here (excluding the back translations to English) is:
Slavic-->Romantic-->Germanic-->African-->Asian-->Middle Eastern

This is more helpful than translating between languages within the same group, as often the grammatical structure and words themselves are similar enough  that no significant change can be made.

Here's an example, of an outraged post made on the talk page for Wikipedia's Bikini article:

Original post:
THIS IS SICK!!!!!!
I AM OUTRAGED AT THE CONTENT OF THIS FOTOGRAF!!! THAT WOMAN IS (AND 95 PERCENT SHE IS WOMAN IN WHITE SLAVERY!) SHE IS WEARING NEXT TO NOTHING. SHE IS SIX QUARTERS NAKED and SINCE KIDS MIGHT BE WATCHING, DIALING IN THIS PICTURE in a SCHOOL LIBRARY and possiblely masturbating with this. this is wikipedia, not playboy. i am a major funder and will withdraw payments unless all pornographic, child porn, and likewise obscene material withdrawn. at the very least, could this picture show a more covering bikini (most women's bikini's do not show stomach area AT ALL just go to the beach sometime YOU IDIOT! S Or just show a bikini sitting on the ground without any girls in it. THESE ARE MY OFFICIAL SUGGESTIONS.
I DEMAND REASBONSIBLITY IN THIS SITE. PROTECTRING CHILDREN IN OUR MAIN RESPONSIBILITY. WHOSE WITH ME?

Full of outrage, and reaking of poor grammar.
The post after being run through Google Translate multiple times:


This is' sick !!!!!!

I am outraged by the contents of a photographer! Women (and 95 percent of women in white slavery!), Almost everything. Open 6 / 4 and then the children can see pictures of the school library and classroom possiblely masturbate with him. Not easy to Playboy. I am the chief sponsor of the sex charges, child sex and obscene material removed. At the very vaccines over these bikini pictures bikini (, many women do not have the stomach to show for all but the motto of the beach bikini girl show S! or underground informal stage of these proposals ..

REASBONSIBLITY need of this sector. Protection of large multiply our responsibility for children. Who am I?


So now he/she's the main sponsor of the material he/she wants removed, and they are unaware of who they are.

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