SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
Submitted via IRC for boru
The Israel Police mistakenly arrested a Palestinian worker [...] because they relied on automatic translation software to translate a post he wrote on his Facebook page. The Palestinian was arrested after writing "good morning," which was misinterpreted; no Arabic-speaking police officer read the post before the man's arrest.
[...] the man posted on his Facebook page a picture from the construction site where he works in the West Bank settlement of Beitar Ilit near Jerusalem. In the picture he is leaning against a bulldozer alongside the caption: "Good morning" in Arabic.
The automatic translation service offered by Facebook uses its own proprietary algorithms. It translated "good morning" as "attack them" in Hebrew and "hurt them" in English.
Arabic speakers explained that English transliteration used by Facebook is not an actual word in Arabic but could look like the verb "to hurt" – even though any Arabic speaker could clearly see the transliteration did not match the translation.
Source: Haaretz
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:52PM (11 children)
Elsewhere on another English language forum, I see idiots regularly trying to post using Google translate or similar services. They don't even realize that most of the time, what they post is unintelligible gibberish, or that older English speakers (ones that have not been lobotomized by Twitter) take offense at such poor translations.
It may often be a case of Garbage In, Garbage Out. Still, it is quite foolish to post in some language you are not familiar with. Your simple question about where to find a file may instead insult the administrator's mother.
(Score: 5, Funny) by Thexalon on Tuesday October 31 2017, @01:55PM (1 child)
My hovercraft is full of eels.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @06:42PM
My nipples explode with delight!
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:08PM (5 children)
For extra fun try to Google translate through 4 or 5 different languages and then back to your own.
(Score: 3, Funny) by KritonK on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:39PM
"If you want more, you can translate Google into 4 or 5 languages and then go back."
I see what you mean...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @08:17PM
In some cases translating it into only one other language and then back to your own is enough.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday October 31 2017, @09:15PM (2 children)
Or try to find the equilibrium between Japanese and English!
http://www.translationparty.com/ [translationparty.com]
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday October 31 2017, @11:18PM
I tried the classic 'my hovercraft is full of eels', it stabilised in one go :(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by maxwell demon on Wednesday November 01 2017, @07:33AM
Well, Douglas Adams is stuck in an infinite loop. [translationparty.com]
And in case you didn't know: Perfection is achieved. There is nothing to add, but nothing is left. - SaintExupéry · Into Toon [translationparty.com]
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by JNCF on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:14PM (1 child)
Following two rules, I think it's fine to use modern computer translation to bridge language barriers:
1) Make it clear that this is what you're doing, in your native language, before the translated body.
2) Translate the body back and forth to see if your word choice can survive a double-mangling with most of the meaning intact. If it can't, choose simpler words and grammar. Iterate until your message is mostly readable.
(Score: 2) by SomeGuy on Tuesday October 31 2017, @08:21PM
This may be a good idea for some places, like Facebook, but on private forums posting any non-English may be frowned upon. This is due to the potential risk that the poster may be hiding something inappropriate in the non-English portion that the administrators or moderators can not read (and may not have time or desire to fiddle with on-line translators to see if things match).
I would also add, keep questions or statements short, to the point, and on-topic. A short simple question, even with broken English, is more likely to get an answer than some page long gibberish that might have a question hidden in there somewhere.
(Score: 5, Informative) by requerdanos on Tuesday October 31 2017, @02:56PM
Be that as it may, when a Facebook post appears in a newsfeed in a language other than the language that the user's Facebook is set to, Facebook offers to automatically translate it to his chosen language. Thus, your every post in any language is being simultaneously posted in languages you are not familiar with.