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Subject:Machine Translation From:"Beckton, Jon" <jbeckton -at- MHS7 -dot- TNS -dot- CO -dot- ZA> Date:Fri, 12 Mar 1999 10:49:14 +0200
In view of the recent threads on localis(z)ation and machine translation,
and hanging on to on-topicness by the skin of its teeth, this piece from the
New Scientist magazine's "Feedback" column of 20 February 1999 should be of
interest:
The instruction manual for a Japanese/English automatic translating
machine to be found on the Web begins as follows:
"Thankyou very much to buy our SAT-1000JE Mk I Automatic Translation
Machine. The machine is the most best and first machine of its kind in the
all world and we are proud to be the development of it. Even if this machine
is only the Mk I model so, we are sure that we will make wonderful grade-ups
for it and also in new models for your improvement service."
The manual, which can be found at http://www.spis.co.nz/autotran.htm, concludes by defining the machine's
"translation quality" as "Guarantee level of Grade 3 qualified Japan-English
translator and also understand by native English speaker of outputting
always."
Splendid stuff. But one thought occurs - could this, by any chance,
be a spoof?
jbeckton -at- mhs7 -dot- tns -dot- co -dot- za
Tel +27 11 374 6426
"There are two kinds of fool in the world - one says 'This is old and
therefore good' and the other says, 'This is new and therefore better.'" -
Isaac Azimov
