Issue Date: October 10, 2004
Wie sagt man ...? *
Sites that'll translate anything.
So you want to buy a parachute from a pilot in Paris or send a dispatch to your darling in Darjeeling but face a language barrier? No problema.
Talking Panda iLingo, for your iPod, translates phrases, then pronounces them for you.
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One of the best places to start is babelfish.altavista.com. Drop your text into the box and translate to/from a dozen languages. Free translation services use machine translation (MT) to render text from one language to another. The translation is immediate, and it's ideal for drafts or chat rooms. But it's pretty rough, and you'd need a human translator for true accuracy.
I tested freetranslation.com, which translates from English to more than half a dozen languages, with a letter to my e-mail pal in Moscow. He responded with a list of text problems, including "translation absolutely senseless" in one section.
The key, I've found, is to keep your text simple. Avoid slang, and use short sentences and correct spelling. (Many of these sites also offer fee-based services once you realize the MT version is too sketchy for an important document.)
At Talkingpanda.com, you can download Talking Panda iLingo, designed for the iPod. For $14.95, it includes 400 words and phrases in French, Spanish, Italian or German. Your iPod plays the proper pronunciation in your ear.
Google chimes in at google.com/language_tools, where you can translate text or search for sites in a foreign language (searching "Bjork" on Icelandic sites turned up 1,180 hits). Halfway down the page is my favorite thing: You can change the language on your Google homepage to anything from Albanian to Yiddish. I switched to Pig Latin. Now I start my searches by clicking "I'may Eelingfay Uckylay."
-- Melanie D.G. Kaplan
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*German for "How do you say ...?"
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