Lost in translation

Many of my students think that Google Translate is a wonderful thing, a tool that solves all their English problems. It’s true that it is useful while on holiday if you need to show a shopkeeper a word so you can buy what you want, and it can be useful when translating from English into your language so you can get the gist of a text.

However, used wrongly, Google Translate can hinder your English learning. Over the years, I’ve received countless essays that were written in the student’s language, then translated into English, resulting in either comical or incomprehensible rubbish. (By the way, if you do that, your teacher will know instantly it’s been translated that way).

Have you ever seen memes on Facebook that show comical translations from your language into English? You don’t want your English teacher to laugh at your work, even though English teachers need to laugh sometimes. Did you notice the translation mistake on this blogpost of mine? If you’re Turkish, you will know that the color orange is “turuncu,” but the fruit “orange” is “portakal.” Whoever created that image (Not me!) did a GT and didn’t check the translations.

Actually, when translating between western European languages, Google Translate can be very accurate because the word order in these languages is quite similar. But, alas, this is not true of translating between wildly different languages – although GT does learn as it translates: so, one day, it could become perfect. Who knows?

But, for now, you should use GT smartly.

Try typing these words into GT: contain, involve, include. You’ll see that the choices of words in your language are very similar for each word – but not the same. In fact, these three words have some distinct meanings, and some meanings that overlap. And using the wrong one in the wrong place will cause confusion.

Your best friend!

So this is how I suggest you use GT:

Type in the word in your language that you wish to translate. Make a note of the options in English. Then use an English-English dictionary to look up each word. Understand the exact meanings fully, because the shades of meaning can be quite different. You can then check that example sentences make sense if you use your word in your language in those sentences. You can also check the meaning with a bilingual dictionary. You should only translate single words because sentences can often be translated wrongly this way.

This may seem like a lot of bother, but it’s the only way to ensure that you have chosen the right word.

There is a free Longman dictionary for language learners online, and there is a free Oxford Dictionary app, too.

Let’s end with a topical joke:

But to understand it, here is the necessary vocabulary: The verb “smell” in English has two meanings: 1) to have a bad/good/particular smell; and 2) to sense with your nose.

Here’s the joke:

Your other best friend!

Man: My dog has no nose.

Woman: How does he smell?

Man: Absolutely terrible!

You can’t translate that into your language.

Happy studies!