I have to start today with a thank you to Mr Plague who featured my ABC Wednesday posts yesterday. It is always satisfying to know that you blogging efforts are appreciated.
Not that I’ve been putting in much effort today because I’ve been too busy with other things, like adding Google Translate to my sidebar on the right.
I came across it while needing to translate a French website to glean some information for a future ABC Wednesday post and thought ‘why not?’
After all, you never know when you might be visited by an Albanian, a Czech or a Chinaman. (Is that last one un-PC these days? I lose track.)
There’s even Welsh on the list which might be helpful to at least one regular visitor.
I particularly like the inclusion of Latin in the list of languages. I’d quite like to rattle of a few wise words in the Roman tongue now and then, but though I studied Latin for three years, I can’t get much beyond hic est puer, haec est puella these days.
There were a couple of languages that I wasn’t familiar with, namely Kannada which is spoken in the state of Karnataka in India, and Telugu which is also spoken in Karnataka, but is the primary language of Andhra Pradesh.
Videtis igitur non solum utile sagittis sed rutrum quis enim.
Notice how I slipped into Latin there? It’s working already. Or maybe not. What I wrote was: So you see, not only is this useful for visitors, but it’s educational for me.
Using Google translate to take it back into English comes up with: Do you see arrows, but more useful, therefore, not only for who.
You are a never-ending source of inspiration, blogwise!
Why can’t all these foreign johnnies simply speak English? Then there’d be no need for translators and going abroad on holiday would be much easier, no need to speak slowly or yell when the dimwits don’t understand. I notice that Liverpudlian isn’t even on the dropdown list of foreign languages.
The previous comment had me LOL! My step-father’s mother was fond of yelling her Dutch commands to vendors in the marketplace in Spain. It was hilarious to see as a child. Having a puer eternus or two in my family, I got that part of your Latin… otherwise, it really is a dead language to me…. aside from the ocassional inter alia and such that government documents like to see. I call my honey Chinaman all the time, sometimes even a goddam Chinaman… but understand that this is in jest (I adore the man, and yes, he is China-born)… but otherwise, yes, oops, it’s a tad un-PC these days… Not that I subscribe to that religion either. I suppose it’s context, context, context…. (as opposed to location). So now… where the heck’s your translator? Oh, and I see the ABCs I’ve been missing will soon be starting another round… Have played with the idea of doing a Mongolia (like your S Africa) round… but yikes, my blogging has been so spotty this year; not sure I could sustain it!
PS. Forgot the main point here: Google Translate is the best of the lot. Bing is hopeless; Yahoo so-so… BUT, as you illustrate so well, it’s only good for getting the gist of something. I know sales people in China who rely solely on GT to communicate with the outside world and their business results, you can imagine, are less than stellar. STILL, they are not interested to budget for a native speaking editor… hence outrageous signs, billboards, websites… 🙂
Since you asked: Yes, “Chinaman” is definitely not PC.
…especially when said of a female.
“Oriental” is definitely out, as it is based on a Euro-centric view of the world.
But what are we supposed to say, “a resident of the People’s Republic”???
Inquiring minds want to know.
@rhymeswithplague… Chinese would work fine. You know, as in: Abanian, British, Chinese, Danish… 😉
NB. Darn laptop… that was supposed to be Albanian… (Can’t delete your own comment? Ooops! No room for “on second thought” here…)
Thanks for thinking of me, SP. I’m sure my excellent command of fluent welsh will benefit from the use of Google Translate. (Or maybe not…) 😉
For what it’s worth, I received test comments 2-7, but not 1. 😉 (It’s fine if you delete this comment. Just thought you might want to know.)
Thanks Francisca. I forgot that anyone subscribing to the comments would get my test comments. What I’m trying to do is to allow people to edit or delete their comments, but it’s proving trickier than I thought!
I’m impressed that you can do these things yourself, Ian. Have I told you already that I really like the design of your site? Very cool. I like everything about it; colours, layout, fonts, name, all. This does not look like a Wordpress or Blogger site; is it? Did you start with a template? Btw, I still don’t see the translator.
PS. Add *content* to that list of mine! 😛
Francesca, do a search on the phrase “Google Translate” and you’ll find it! Then don’t forget to bookmark it.
Thanks Francisca. This is a WordPress site and I used the Thesis framework as the starting point and then worked it up from there.
You should be able to see the Google translator though. At the top of the second sidebar just above my Flickr stream.
I just had a thought – coud Google Translate be being blocked where you are?
Well, hrmph, this is a kicker! No, I can get to Google Translate fine through the anonymous proxy I am using (and I use it daily)… but I can NOT typically get to Wordpress sites, yet I’ve had no trouble getting here today (knock on wood)! And whip me with a wet noodle, now that you point it out, I see your translator. Elegantly done, Ian, but… I wonder whether anyone who NEEDS it can see what it is? 🙂 (I am not suggesting a change.)
PS. I test drove your translator in Dutch and French, and aside from eliciting a couple of giggles, it works fine. 🙂
To be honest, I’m not really expecting anyone to use the translator. I guess I did it just because I could!
Anonymous proxy sites are all the rage at the moment, mostly for nefarious purposes. Not that I’m casting aspersions!
You do understand that the only reason I am using this proxy is to get around the Great Firewall of Big Brother so I can have this conversation with you, right? And to get to my own blog and other social media deemed dangerous here. 🙂
Of course I do! I was just being provocative.
Francisca, you’ll be pleased to learn that I’ve now added an edit and delete function to my comments!
I knew you’d succeed! 🙂 In turn, you may be pleased I got here without the wicked proxy. Greetings from free Hong Kong!