Great news for people who planned to go to Eastern or Northern Europe this summer: Google translator has added 10 new languages, almost all of them from the fringes of the continent.
The new languages are Bulgarian, Croatian, Czech, Danish, Finnish, Hindi, Norwegian, Polish, Romanian and Swedish. Google Translator now works for 23 languages, and it translates from any language on that list to any language on that list.
Is it perfect? God no. But it’s good enough to reserve a room in a hotel or table a restaurant via email. It’s even good enough to get the gist of local news stories.
Here’s the first paragraph of the story from Le Monde in the original French.
Ce n’est pas une révolution, c’est une explosion : de 1968 à 2008, le nombre de salles de théâtre à Paris a doublé, et l’offre de spectacles a été multipliée au moins par cinq. En 1968, on comptait une soixantaine de salles, et une moyenne de 70 spectacles par semaine. Quarante ans plus tard, on dénombre 130 salles environ, et une moyenne de 300 spectacles par semaine, ce chiffre pouvant monter jusqu’à plus de 450 en période pleine.
Here’s how Google renders it in English.
This is not a revolution, is an explosion: from 1968 to 2008, the number of rooms theatre in Paris has doubled, and offers entertainment has been multiplied by at least five. In 1968, there were about sixty rooms, and an average of 70 shows per week. Forty years later, there are approximately 130 rooms, and an average of 300 shows per week, that figure could climb to more than 450 in full period.
Actually, that paragraph is a lot closer to the original than most of what I’ve run through Google Translator in years past. Either it was a very easy story or the software has gotten better.
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