Originally posted by unknown on September 23, 2017
As a grade 3 teacher in Alberta, we teach 4 major countries in social studies; Tunisia, Ukraine, Peru and India. Daniel Knowles’s article reminded me the desire my own students have to learn the language of the countries they study. Recently a colleague recently posting her experience using Google Translate while teaching these units.
“Thank you Google Translate! You made me into a Ukrainian, Persian, Fillipino modern English speaking Gr 3 teacher! Дякую Google Перекладач! Ви зробили мене в українській, перській, філіпінській сучасній англійській мові 3 класовій вчительці!
با تشکر از شما گوگل ترجمه! شما من را به یک معلم انگلیسی مدرن تربیت مدرس فارسی، فارس، فیلیپینو تبدیل کردید!
Salamat sa Google Translate! Ginawa mo ako sa isang Ukrainian, Persian, Fillipino na modernong Ingles na nagsasalita ng Gr 3 na guro! “
Google Translate has the ability to remove language barriers, allowing people of different cultures to easily communicate despite language difference. I have also seen Google Translate used in action during Parent/Teacher Conferences, where previously the teacher would patiently wait for the translator. Last year, my school received a student from France (French speaking only) who was severely aggressive, if was not for Google Translate the year would have been difficult to communicate with her. I believe Google Translate will allow for multi-cultures be more embraced in the classroom and abroad.
This is a fascinating post for me, especially in combination with the research we are currently looking at in ETEC 540. Text and technologies are rapidly changing in a mobile and open world, and google translate is a brilliant case study to look at where culture gets thrown into the mix. Google translate is a great tool, that has saved me a great many times in various situations whilst travelling and working abroad. It is also a useful educational tool if trying to learn other languages – it can act as a wonderful teacher. However, it does have it’s limits.
Language and cultures are so closely related, with different concepts of the world being encapsulated in how we say things or the expressions that we have and use. Lera Boroditsky has a brilliant talk to look at this in detail called “How the Languages we Speak shape the way we think” which you can view here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGuuHwbuQOg
This is one aspect where google translate falls short. As mentioned in a previous comment, it is great at short simple phrases that require only meaning transferrence. But when using language acting as an expression of culture (or of self), including nuances and poetry and flair, google translate often is not able to function. It is a tool for literal use, not for figurative play with language. That said, the google translate poetry that exists out there may be a new aspect of culture itself.
Here is one last article worth a read on this topic:
The Shallowness of Google Translate (Douglas Hofstadter, 30 January 2018)
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2018/01/the-shallowness-of-google-translate/551570/
I think online translation/ AI tools definitely have their places in facilitating communication. Here’s a personal experience. When I travelled to Mount Bromo in Indonesia, my tour guide speaks very little English. However, he was a joyful guy who wanted to share more information about himself and his job with me. But he couldn’t do that just by himself. To my surprise, he took out his phone and started to talk to his phone, and then he handed his phone to me and instructed me with hand gestures. Listen, he said. At that moment, I was like, “oh, I didn’t know Google can do that.” I always thought I need to at least type into google translation.
However, being convenient can be good and bad in different situations. English is a second language to almost all my students, some of them are super weak in English and no matter how many times we tried to tell them, it is important to learn by themselves, especially for L2 learners. They don’t listen. So they would just copy and paste long paragraphs into the translation box and read the Chinese translation. And they do the same when they try to write something, they will put in Chinese and let Baidu translate do the rest. As a result, no improvement of their English ability.
As educators, we are frustrated because we know that some of the students need more time to get to the level they need to be, but the parents often don’t share the same acknowledgement with us.
Hello Jane,
I have the same issue with my students. I remember that the first week I met them, they still carried a Spanish-Chinese dictionary. Usually in China cellphones are not allowed in class, so when they came to school they did not even think of bringing it. After seeing the Argentinean students allowed to bring the cellphone, they (Chinese) started to use the cellphone for translating school work. It got to the point that they got too dependent on the phone.
I believe it also depends on the personality of the students. Some of them are open-minded and embrace the chance of being overseas. These students can speak Spanish fluently. Other students are just unhappy about being in a foreign country. It was not an option staying back home and they were forced to come here. These students just do not care if they learn the language or not. They always tell me that as long as they are old enough they want to go back to China, so they do not really care if they learn the language or not.
Hi Jane,
I’m guilty as well. I use the translator on my phone to communicate with people in China. When I first came to China, I was eager to learn the language but soon that enthusiasm faded away. I was constantly surrounded by English speakers and after some time, laziness took over and I wasn’t as interested anymore. Also, people naturally gravitate to what they are comfortable with. Learning a new language is never easy and one has to invest much time, money and effort in it. Once those translating apps appeared, I did see the need to spend time on learning Chinese. I do realize now that I was wrong and I should have tried harder but still now, I can’t bring myself to commit to it. I could blame technology for that but at the end of the day, it’s the choice that I made as a learner and individual.
Originally posted by Steve on 28 September 2017
Google translate is definitely a work in progress, with large ramifications as the previous comment and review have described. To me, this parallels the evolution of voice recognition. I remember being so excited to try out voice recognition 15 years ago, using voice recognition on my computer. It was terrible! It got confused so easily and could not recognize simple words. Fast forward to today. I use a home assistant all the time. Occasionally it makes mistakes, but generally it works impressively. My point is that Google Translate is just like voice recognition used to be. It’s not advanced enough to be regularly useful, but the promise is there. When I was in Mexico last month, I used Google translate to translate one simple phrase into Spanish text for a security officer at a gate who was refusing to let my family pass: “We are staying in the resort on the beach, please let us through this gate.” He read the translation, laughed and showed his friend, then let us through the gate without charging us. Google Translate will someday be a tool that will embolden the travel-shy (myself included) to explore and share themselves with the world more.
Originally posted by unknown on 24 September 2017
Hi Meghan, I definitely agree! There are many cases where I’ve seen “Google translate gone wrong” as well. As someone who speaks English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, there are times when I need to use Google translate to translate more formal terms to Chinese that are not used in daily conversations. However, there are many times where the translated terms are inaccurate or does not make sense. I’ve also worked with Chinese instructors who would give me examples where their students would rely on Google translate to do their homework for them and assume the instructor doesn’t know. However, instructors are able to identify it right away because Google translate is usually grammatically incorrect It translates word for word instead of considering a whole phrase/sentence/paragraph. I would say it can give you a general understanding of what a paragraph of text in another language is trying to communicate but will not give you an accurate translation.
Original comment by unknown on 23 September 2017
While I cannot deny that Google translate is useful, I am hesitant to use it when I need to communicate something other than the simplest phrases. There are countless examples of Google translate gone wrong (An, 2013; Heritage, 2013) that show how problematic internet-based translation can be. However, what I have learned as an English speaker living in a Mandarin-speaking city is that domestic translation services seem more accurate than Google translate. Baidu’s translation app has rarely let me down and supports text, voice, and image input (MacGregor, 2017; Shu, 2014). MacGregor (2017) goes as far as to suggest that Baidu translate is more powerful than Google Translate–possibly for its use of AI technologies. However, even though I am confident in using Baidu’s translations for simple matters, I still have to verify important translations as there are always mistakes. Therefore, we need to be cautious about the quality of translations that are being churned out because, if were using online translation in the first place, we cannot verify the accuracy of the translation provided. Additionally, Schild (2017) makes an important point about how translating confidential information when using an online translator may violate privacy and confidentiality laws. Add to this the risk of transmitting sensitive information over an unsecured internet connection and we can really start to see some of the often overlooked issues with online translators. References An, J. (2013, April 27). How accurate is Google Translate, anyway? Retrieved from https://www.digitaltrends.com/web/how-accurate-is-google-translate/ Heritage, S. (2013, October 8). Google Translate: 10 reasons why it’s no match for learning a language. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/technology/shortcuts/2013/oct/08/google-translate-no-match-learning-language MacGregor, T. (2017, August 18). China breakthroughs: Baidu hopes you never get lost in translation. Retrieved from http://english.cctv.com/mobile/tuwen/index.shtml?articalID=ARTIrNdh5cTVvDZvAm5Fw7db170818 Schild, J. (2017, July 25). Why Google Translate is bad for business. Retrieved from http://daily.unitedlanguagegroup.com/stories/editorials/update-google-translate-bad-business Shu, C. (2014, January 20). Baidu Translate app features a cool image recognition tool. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2014/01/20/baidu-translate-app-features-a-cool-image-recognition-feature/