I hear a lot of complaints about Google Translate. A lot of people have dismissed this tool as unreliable or inaccurate. Personally, I am a fan of Google Translate as well as Google Text-to-Speech (TTS). In this post, I’ll share my thoughts on Google Translate and why it’s an undoubtedly useful resource for language learners.
I’ve learned a lot of languages. In fact, I started 10 of these languages within the past couple decades. Nowadays, with rapid advances in global connectivity and technology, I’ve been able to make meaningful progress in a wide range of languages: Russian, Korean, Portuguese, Romanian, Greek, Arabic, Persian, etc. I owe a big debt of gratitude to Google Translate and Google Text-to-Speech. Let me explain.
Google Translate, Multi-Purpose Dictionary
Computer-based translation technology, such as Google Translate, relies on comparing massive quantities of language content between pairs of languages. The goal is to establish patterns and determine if certain words or phrases correspond to other words and phrases in another language.
The accuracy of machine translation is dependent on the amount of language content available. The greater the volume of content, the more accurate it becomes. Thus, Google Translate usually provides better translations to and from English. Google Translate is also more successful with languages that are more similar to English.
Google Translate’s accuracy is constantly improving. It’s improving by leaps and bounds. As more and more corpora of language content is processed using artificial intelligence (AI), translations are far more accurate than they were just a few years ago.
I sometimes hear criticisms about the accuracy of machine translation. But this criticism normally comes from people who expect perfection or from people worry about the future of language professionals. However, as a humble language learner with no expectations of perfection, I love Google Translate.
LingQ & Google Translate
I’m learning Arabic and Persian on LingQ. It’s been a long road, especially when it comes to reading a new and unfamiliar writing system. LingQ provides quick, instant translations with Google Translate. I’m able to clarify, save, and keep reading with just one click. I don’t stress too much about the accuracy of the translation, as additional listening and reading will help me clarify meaning.
If a translation from Google Translate isn’t very accurate, I don’t see this as an obstacle. If anything, it gives me a hint as to the meaning of a word or phrase. The inaccuracies in Google Translate are not long-term problems, but rather short-term irritants.
In addition to Google Translate, LingQ offers a selection of dictionaries for more accurate translations. I also use these. Context Reverso is my favorite because it offers verb conjugations and example sentences. However, Google Translate is still the fastest translator tool for a language learner, especially for phrases and sentences. I can highlight a phrase or whole sentence on LingQ, and Google Translate provides an instant translation.
This is extremely useful, as I don’t need to tackle a sentence word by word. I can clarify meaning more effectively.
How I Learn Languages with Google Translate
1) Google Text-to-Speech (TTS)
When I highlight a word, a phrase or a sentence, I can hear the pronunciation using Google’s text-to-speech feature. This is valuable for any language, but I find it especially helpful for Arabic and Persian. I reiterate that the writing system is still quite unfamiliar to me. The pronunciation is artificial, but it helps bring my reading material alive and read with more stamina. Of course, it is always more pleasant and more reliable to hear a natural voice. However, TTS is undeniably helpful.
2) Use Google Translate to Create Your Own Learning Content
Most of my learning is based on listening and reading. The words and phrases that I am learning are those that I find in texts that I read and listen to. Often, however, I find myself wondering how I would express certain concepts in the language I am learning. I often need to look up basic vocabulary or connector phrases (ex: in my opinion, in other words, etc.). Sometimes, I just want to see longer translations in the target language.
In order to acquire the vocabulary I’m looking for, I just write out some text in English, purposefully using the vocabulary and expressions I want to learn. Then, I copy and paste this into Google Translate. I now have a custom text in my target language filled with words and structures that I need. I then import this text into LingQ as a lesson, where I can save the relevant words and phrases into LingQ for later review.
3) Google Translate & Grammar
If I need an overview of the grammar of a new language, I go to Google. If I need verb conjugation tables or noun declension tables, I can simply search for this information on Google. However, for those who don’t enjoy reading grammar explanations, Google Translate is a great way to experiment and play with the language. Translate sentences look for patterns. Simply playing around on Google Translate, you’ll discover a lot about your target language.
4) Google Translate as an Editing Tool
Google Translate helps me communicate more clearly through writing, as I use it to polish emails or posts. Even if I speak the language quite well, I may not be 100 percent sure about the grammar or spelling. A quick search or dictation on Google Translate can correct any obvious errors or inconsistencies in my writing. Especially for those who have an advanced level in the language, Google Translate helps you confirm that your texts are free of spelling errors or awkward phrasing. I use Google Translate to produce more polished texts and leave a stronger impression.
Final Thoughts:
Is Google Translate perfect? Probably not. However, it’s transformative technology for the language learner. Look past the occasional inaccuracies and embrace the newfound ease in reading and listening to material in your target language. Advances in translation tools are not a threat to language learning as long as we understand how to use this technology for our benefit.
16 comments on “Google Translate Doesn’t Work? I disagree.”
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I want to add that with the Google translate app you can make use of the handwriting tool which for some people and some languages allows you to draw the letters and Google translate can do word recognition. As well the camera tool has recognition capability. For example click on the camera icon and have it translate a sign in the airport or the restaurant menu. Can’t understand someone, have them speak into the app. Use it to listen to podcasts where you can pause. These are just some tools available.
As far as I know, Google Translate (GT) uses English as a hub. Thus, to go from Dutch to German, GT goes D–>E–>G . This significantly reduces the accuracy of the translation.
While GT is good or very good for Spanish, German and Russian to and from English, it is practically useless for Korean to English.
I found your article to be right on target. For one thing, I think average users have higher expectations, than they should, of Google Translate simply due to lack of knowledge. When someone understands the complexity of creating something as linguistically intricate as Google Translate, he understands that it would be impossible for translation software to do this job the way a person would. Now, another reason users expect too much from GT, and this reason also derives from lack of knowledge, is that users normally do not think thoroughly about how they are communicating with GT. There are specific observations that need to be taken into account. For example, I have used GT to translate from English to Russian and vice versa. The translation software will have some level of difficulty translating accurately compound or hyphened words, such as “figure out”. Instead of asking GT to translate “We need to figure something out. The issue’s bound to have a solution”, I would rephrase it and ask it to translate “We need to find a solution. There must be one” in the case of the Russian language. I would also avoid words such as “picture” and use “photograph” instead. This is also what I do in real life when I am speaking with someone whose English I suspect might have some limitations. I find that it is a bit arrogant to expect the other person to do all the work in figuring out an interpretation. It is ok to meet them half way and try to make the sentences as simple as possible. And it’s smart to use words that we might find to be similar in several other languages, such as photograph, because words such as “picture” may have different meanings in French, Italian, Spanish, so the likelihood that it will also have a different meaning in Russian than in English is very high. However, if we try to translate the word photograph, we will find that the translation of such words into other languages will be a word from similar Latin or Greek roots. Obviously if you are bilingual, you know exactly what I’m referring to. It helps if you are bilingual or have traveled a bit and dealt with language issues before, to understand what a speaker from another language might need us to use in order to help him interpret our message or question. Now, having said all that, I have to say that I have tried Bing translator, and I was very impressed. I used compound words and fixed phrases that GT would normally miss. Guess what? Bing translator got it right 9 times out of 10. I thought that was pretty amazing.
In my opinion, if you want to get a translation right through a translation software, the safest thing to do is to think of any translation tool as a relatively inexperienced translator; someone who will make mistakes unless you do your part to make things easier for him.
Agreed, we have to make it easy for the translator. Through trial and error we can usually get good results. Cheers.
Concurred, we need to make it simple for the interpreter. Through experimentation we can generally get great results.
Actually it doesn’t work. Try to translate any word in Greek and the only thing it will do is to convert the Greek alphabet into Latin alphabet but still in Greek.
I would just like to mention one outstanding German online translator: https://www.deepl.com/translator.
It doesn’t yet have as many languages as the Google translator, but there are some serious comments that attest DEEPL to a better translation than Google, Microsoft and Facebook can do.
Many greetings
Hi Steve.
I love google translate too. It can be very useful. I supplement google translate with lingoes dictionary which is an offline dictionary. lingoes dictionary has the option of functioning as apopup dictionary by setting up whatever hotkey you want. I usually set it to double left click so if google translate fails me I resort to lingoes for instantaneous relief (I’ve been doing this for Spanish/French).
Japanese has great pop-up dictionaries. 2 most notable ones are rikai-sama and yomisama
Thank you for the great article – I totally agree with the points you have raised.
I was previously rather sceptical about GT (especially since it used to provide much more rudimentary translations). I used to think of it as a tool for those who are too lazy to put into practice a language they are learning; or a crude tool one has to make do with for translating from really exotic languages.
Recently, I have changed my mind. I am currently reading a book in Chinese and my understanding is about 70-80%. Most of the time the words I do not know are simply stylistic ornaments, which do not convey much meaning and would not appear in everyday speech anyway – I am planning to acquire them gradually, but it is not my top priority.
GT is perfect for dealing with these unfamiliar words. I first read a few paragraphs of the book and then translate that fragment using GT to verify my understanding. If there is an unfamiliar word, which is frequently used, with time I notice it when I first read the Chinese text and can check its meaning using GT.
An alternative approach to GT would be to translate the text word-by-word using a dictionary – which would be much less fun, would probably take too long to be practical and would not give me the advantage of going through a lot of text to develop the feel for ‘word statistics’. By using GT I can get a better idea on how important a word is (based on how often it appears in text) and pay more attention to it.
I have not yet used GT for writing much, but your suggestion is certainly valuable!
Google Translate used to be dreadful at Turkish to English, I think partly because Turkish is a non-Indo-European language with an agglutinative structure, but in recent years it has greatly improved.
naver is better than google for korean!
Due to language complexity, Google, Bing and other machine translators cannot replace human translators. In the different languages, there are words with dual meanings and also what works in one language does not necessarily work in another. In addition, Machine can’t relate words to context. Translation is something when quality matters more than anything.
I think “Lingue” is better tool than GT but it have few languages Germany English and Spanish.
Lately I have been following very closely the advances in the field of Artificial Intelligence, and I am amazed by the latest achievements of AI systems: BioMind has beaten a team of 15 doctors at diagnosing brain tumors and predicting the expansion of brain hematomas. AlphaGo beat the Go world champion, and then was beaten by a superior AI system: DeepMind. However, I thought language translation was safe from the “assaults” of AI (at least for the next two or three decades), being that natural language is far more complex that Go or reading CT imaging.
Fast forward to last week. I was assigned to translate a psycho-neurological report and decided to give Google Translate a try to see how it is doing nowadays: it left me speechless. Mind you, I am not easy to impress. I am a linguist with 20 years of experience as professional translator and proofreader (English-Spanish-English). I have worked in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain and the United States for one of the most important translation organizations in the world, alongside linguists from all over Latin America and Spain obsessed with grammatical and syntactical correctness. This is to say I know my stuff.
I fed Google Translate full paragraphs of this highly technical report and it showed a deep understanding of morphology, syntax, linguistic and situational context, and semantics. Many sentences were impeccable. Some had flaws (especially when dealing with polysemic words) but it was nothing a proofreader could not work with. Not only did Google Translate save me time, it showed me that my profession is not as safe as I thought. I give it between 5 and 10 years for this AI system to make a translation as good as a human one (of course such translation will need proofreading, but so does a human translation anyway). Time to move to interpretation, which adds a whole layer of complexity to the task and will be safe from automation for at least the next two or three decades (gulp!)
Google Translate is good for simple translations but if you need reliable and technical translations, TechDico is better and it translates in 28 languages.
Google translate is a good option for translation. But many a times, we cannot totally rely on their results. One problem that I face is that most of the times it gives literal translations. We just need to have clear concepts. Only then can we modify google translation results.