Recently there were discussions on how AI should be used in this forum, and one of the uses that people mentioned was using AI for translation, especially for people who don’t speak English. For those cases, should they just post in their native language instead of posting the translated version?
Sure, they can use an AI to translate from their native language to English before posting here, and AI translations nowadays are quite reliable(?), but if they have no understanding of English at all, they have no way of checking whether translated result is accurate and conveys what they want to say. Even if the meaning or nuance differs slightly from what they were trying to express, it may lead to more and more misunderstandings down the line. And since we do not have the post in the original language, we would never know what they were trying to express in the first place.
If we have the post in the original language, the reader who doesn’t understand the language will have to translate it on their own and each person may have a different understanding, but maybe some of them will have the correct understanding of what the poster was trying to say. Most importantly, if anyone speaks the same tongue, they can also check the meaning in the original language directly instead of having to read the translated version.
Lastly, as a person who is interested in languages, I think it will be interesting to see Go being discussed in other languages as well.
If they are happening to have a discussion with another person that speaks the same language and they’d like to make a post - or part of a post - in that language so that they can communicate more effectively, then sure. That makes a lot of sense.
Otherwise, no, for three reasons (some of which are mentioned in the post itself): a) Nuance is not only potentially lost depending on which tool will get to translate the text, but different tools produce different texts. Therefore now I might have posted this post in Greek, but each of you might use a different tool to translate it and get as many versions of my posts, as its readers (which is a lot of trouble for everyone involved). Whereas if I choose a translation tool and provide the english text you will all have one text and we will have less misunderstandings. b) It is a bit rude, since it pushes the work/trouble of the translation to the other people that want to read your post. It is your post, then you should put in the work to make it accessible to others. It is the equivalent of going to the supermarket cashier and demanding that the cashier to unload your cart. Those are your shopping items, you should put them on the conveyor belt and let the cashier process them. c) If the original poster provides one and only translation, there is a chance that the poster’s English knowledge (whoever big or small that might be) could be handy in amending or editting the AI/auto-translated result for known mistakes or phrasals, which a non-native speaker might not grasp.
Recently this was posted somewhere and I screenshoted it:
I think it is ok to post in the native language then blindly translate to English. For English speaker it is easy to translate from unknown language than read the malformed translation.
In case of malformed translation it will make big difficulties to other non English speakers to read.
So I think the best choice for completely non English speakers is to write in their native language.
I’m non English speaker too. But not completely. Such people as me who have enough knowledge to state thought in English should post in English.
But I don’t see any points to forcing other people to use translator. Reader can use it too with no efforts. Many browsers based on Chromium have context menu for translation of the selection to English.
So it’s either everyone misunderstands or only some misunderstand, and I think the latter is better .
If it’s many years ago then maybe yeah, but nowadays even the right-click → translate function on the browser also works fine, so it wouldn’t be that much of an effort to translate.
If the poster has a certain grasp of English that will help in the judgement then fine, but if the poster doesn’t and the post doesn’t make sense it doesn’t do good to both the poster and the reader.
a) With no knowledge of the language aimed at, you are going to propagate misunderstandings. I prefer the original language. In that case someone else may offer the best possible translation.
b) cashier image is not relevant at all. He could help you if you miss your arms. It’s as rude to not have interest in the other people’s language, be the sender or the receiver. So it’s not really about rudeness but about convention, accuracy of the communication and availability of translating tools.
c) that is out of the control of the sender, so I might understand if he’s not willing to use it.
Είναι μια αρκετά ενδιαφέρουσα άποψη αλλά κοίτα να δεις τι γίνεται.
Εν πρώτοις υπάρχουν εκφράσεις που διαφορετικά εργαλεία μετάφρασης μπορεί να μεταφράσουν/παραφράσουν με διαφορετικό τρόπο το καθένα (οπότε κάθε ένας απο εσάς τώρα που διαβάζει αυτή την ανάρτηση θα έχει μια ελαφρώς διαφορετική έκδοχή του τι γράφω) και εν δευτέροις θα πρέπει κάθε ένα μέλος που επιθυμεί να διαβάσει αυτό το θέμα να τρέξει να βρει ένα εργαλείο που να μεταφράζει αγγλικά, άλλο δυνητικά που να μεταφράζει καλά τα Γαλλικά και άλλο που να μεταφράζει τα Κινέζικα κ.ο.κ. (επίσης δεν ξέρω κατα πόσο τα διάφορα εργαλεία μπορούν να μεταφράσουν σωστά αρτικόλεξα ή συντομεύσεις όπως το κ.ο.κ. αλλά αυτό είναι ένα άλλο θέμα).
Do you really want my posts in Greek? Really?
Ναι, αλλά δεν είναι το ίδιο. Έχεις χέρια και μπορείς να κάνεις τη δουλειά, αλλά αρνείσαι να το κάνεις.
That seems very reasonable, for whoever would like to do so.
And I’m also interested in language, so much so that I studied (some) linguistics (but didn’t graduate because at some time I had to jump into the cold water of employment back then).
But here, IMNVHO, we should use English as our Lingua Franca. I for one do you even though my mother tongue is German.
I think we should welcome this. If they have at least some English they can check that the translation sounds reasonable. Posts only in the original language discourage too many people from engaging at all as well as creating ambiguity via multiple translations.
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