Saturday, November 26, 2005

Speaking In Tongues

The other day I checked Men-a-Men and saw that the English version of the blog wasn't online yet. I decided to use the Babel Fish Translation tool and translate the post from Dutch to English. The result was pretty good so I commented in both languages.

Artificial translations can sometimes be really bad but the technology is getting better.

When I traveled to Europe I had to rely on some High School French and self taught Spanish. I managed quite well without a translation program. I can still speak and read a little of each language. I do find it frustrating sometimes because I stumble over a phrase I feel I "should" know.

This post is my first multilingual post. It contains text in English, French, Spanish, and Dutch.


  • I learned French in school and spoke it in France.

  • J'ai appris le français dans l'école et le rai il en France.


  • I learned Spanish while traveling in Spain. I also studied it at University.
  • Aprendí español mientras que viajaba en España. También la estudié en la universidad.


  • I never studied Dutch but I tried speaking it when I visited the Netherlands in 1979 and 1980. Here is a photo from my first trip. I was much taller then.

  • Ik bestudeerde nooit het Nederlands maar ik probeerde sprekend het toen ik Nederland in 1979 en 1980 bezocht. Hier is een foto van mijn eerste reis. Ik was toen veel langer.


Now my blog is (temporarily) multilingual. I chose easy languages to play with. I chose to not experiment with one language however. The side effects are ... uncomfortable.

2 comments:

men-a-men*s said...

Nu kan ik gewoon in het Nederlands schrijven! Dan hoeft mijn moeder het niet te vertalen, dat is mooi!

Ik kreeg alleen veel klachten van mensen in Amerika dat het programma Babel Fish vaak niet werkt, daarom is mijn moeder het gaan vertalen....

Ik vind het erg leuk als u in het Nederlands reageert! Anders moet ik altijd mijn moeder roepen....

Groetjes Men

Leon said...

Now am possible I simply in Dutch writing! Then my mother does not have translate it, who is beautiful! I frequently got only many complaints of people in America that the programme Babel Fish do not work, for this reason my mother is going translates.... I find it very nice if you react in Dutch! Differently I must call always my mother.... thanks Men.
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Men, het programma van de Vissen van Babel werkt soms maar het is niet altijd perfect. Maar het is te proberen pret U kunt in het Nederlands in deze commentaren schrijven als u dit wenst.

Leon

Men,
the Babel Fish program sometimes works but it is not always perfect. But, it is fun to try. You can write in Dutch in these comments if you wish.

Leon