View Single Post
  #8 (permalink)  
Old Wed Jan 24, 2001, 09:08am
bob jenkins bob jenkins is offline
Official Forum Member
 
Join Date: Aug 1999
Posts: 18,019
Quote:
Originally posted by parkssa
I used the website from Bob and got the following translation:

I am gustaria a Spanish referee and to communicate to me to me with
North American referees who know the Spanish to interchange
information.


And Bob's response:

Welcome to the " Official Forum." There are many arbitos excellente
that communicase, but only in ingles.

If he is possible, speaks ingles. Or use () http://www.babblefish.com
for written in espanol and we read in ingles. I feel it by espanol bad.


Or we could answer:

Recepción al OfficialForum. Hay muchos funcionarios y porciones excelentes de ayuda si usted puede traducir a y entender inglés.

Which translates to:

Welcome to the OfficialForum. There are many excellent officials and lots of help if you can translate into and understand english.

[Edited by parkssa on Jan 23rd, 2001 at 03:00 PM]
The problem with babblefish (and other simlar sites) is that they tend to translate too literally.

So, "lo siento" is literally "it feels itself to me", but the meaning of it is "I'm sorry". So, my last sentence "Lo siento por el espanol malo" meant "I'm sorry for the poor spanish" -- and I should have said "for my poor spanish."

Plus, since I din't have the correct accent marks, the words "ingles" (english) and "espanol" (spanish) didn't translate.

In your attempt to write first in english, and then translate, "Recepcion" means "reception" -- as in a reception (or "welcome"). It's a noun (or can be an adjective). The correct way to "welcome" someone is "Bien Venido" (literally, "good coming"). Also, "Funcionarios" means "Official representatives" -- the correct word for umpires / referees is "arbitos".

There was an interesting article (I think in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week) on the use of these sites by HS students attempting to, umm, "take advantage of available technology" when writing papers for foreign language classes.
Reply With Quote