Google Translate: German to English
After translating a short text from English to German in my last blog entry, I decided to take a piece of German text at random (from “Der Spiegel”, the German news magazine) and put Google Translate (GT) through its paces, and see what happens. Please note that I have not put it through at the time of writing this, so I will not know what comes out until right now (I did not pre-select a source text that Google would have a hard time with, just to show it up). I really at this point don’t know what is about to happen. I include the original German source text and then the machine translation by Google, and then my own human translation of the text:
German source text:
Klaus-Dieter Gröhler ist ein korrekter Mann: dunkler Anzug, Krawatte, Button-Down-Hemd. Der CDU-Politiker weiß, was einen Herzpfeil von einem isometrischen Pfeil unterscheidet. Es ist die Form der Pfeilspitze – kaum sichtbar für den Normalbürger. “Verhältnismäßig minimal”, nennt Gröhler die Differenz beim Ortstermin in der Berliner Kalkhorster Straße.
Doch der kleine Unterschied ist ein großes Problem für den Baustadtrat des Berliner Bezirks Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Rund 100.000 Euro kosten ihn Pfeile wie die auf dem Parkverbotsschild. Weil der alte Pfeil laut Straßenverkehrsordnung nicht mehr gültig ist, müssen allein in seinem Zuständigkeitsbereich Tausende Schilder ausgetauscht werden. Nicht nur Parkverbotszeichen sind betroffen.
“Man könnte es auch als Konjunkturprogramm für Schilderfirmen bezeichnen”, sagt Gröhler trocken. Hinter ihm rauscht der orangefarbene Lkw vom Tiefbauamt vorbei, auf dem Weg zum nächsten Schild. Gröhler muss jetzt Mittel aus dem Etat für Tiefbauunterhaltung umschichten.
Google Translate English machine translation:
Klaus-Dieter Gröhler is a proper man: dark suit, tie, button-down shirt. The CDU politician knows what makes an arrow from a heart isometric arrow. It is the shape of an arrowhead – barely visible to the average citizen. ”Relatively minimal,” says Gröhler the difference in the site visit in the Berlin Kalkhorst street.
But the small difference is a big problem for the Construction of the Berlin district of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Around 100,000 euro cost him as the arrows on the Prohibition Park. As the old arrow, according to traffic regulations is no longer valid, must only be exchanged within his or thousands of signs. Not only no parking signs are concerned.
“You could also call it Recovery Plan for signage company,” says Gröhler dry. Behind him, the orange truck roars from the civil engineering department over, on the way to the next sign.Gröhler must now benefiting from the budget for public works maintenance redeploy.
My (human) translation:
Klaus-Dieter Gröhler is a proper man: dark suit, tie, button-down shirt. The CDU politician knows the difference between a standard arrow and an isometric arrow. It is the form of the arrow-tip; hardly noticeable to the common person. “Relatively minimal”, Groehler calls the differentiation during the meeting in Berlin’s Kalkhorster Street.
However that small difference is a large problem for the Building Council of the Berlin district of Charlottenburg Wilhelmsdorf. It costs the Council approximately €100,000 for arrows such as those on the no parking sign. Because the old arrow is no longer valid, due to the current traffic laws, alone in his area of responsibility, thousands of signs must be switched out. And it is not just parking signs that are affected.
“One could describe it as an economic stimulus program for the sign-making companies”, Groehler states wryly. Behind him, an orange colored truck of the Civil Engineering Office speeds by, on its way to the next sign. Groehler now has to transfer funds from the budget, in order to fund the maintenance of civil engineering projects.
Commentary:
Again, here we have an example of a more or less (less, actually) ok “gist translation”, but nothing more. Some sentences by Google Translate were passable, and some even good, but some are nonsensical and extremely confusing, and either omit content, or distort it. It only took me about 5 to 10 minutes to translate this chunk of text, and I think that my human translation easily beats what Google Translate managed to come up with.
Analyzing some of Google’s “decisions”, vs. mine:
- GT melded the two types of arrow in sentence 2, even though they were not one concept, but two. That is a serious error in meaning.
- GT’s final sentence in the first paragraph makes no sense.
- I translated the next paragraph as “Building Council”, but GT did not get that at all, and mistranslates the meaning again, leaving the Council out, completely.
- GT: “Prohibition Park”. I have no idea what that means.
- “him”: GT in general has a very hard time differentiating he and she from it and they. Pronouns are a major problem for GT.
- GT”: “for signage company”. GT again cannot tell that the German is plural (companies) and not singular. This seems to be a common GT problem.
- The final sentence by GT also makes really no sense.
To me, the Google Translate result is quite bad and highlights how long machine translation has to go to be able to translate “like a human translator”.
