Laurent’s blog

Online translation engine doesn’t digest french food

Aside from being very funny, here is one more proof that computer-based translation tools can have some real life collateral damages. This Paris bistro announces “we speak English” on its front door and proudly prints its menu in both French and English.

Looking quickly at the menu, I was amazed at the choices available. Today for lunch, do you feel like having a crunch mister, an omelette with grasses or better yet, nets of herrings?

Jokes aside, I tried to have a chat with the barman (the only guy serving) who told me he could not speak a word of English and says his menu is perfectly fine because it was translated by a professional! I did not laugh but instead felt quite sorry.

Menu page 1 & page 2. Sorry they are a bit fuzzy.

My best guess was that it has been translated online. So I pointed the browser to the nearest google translate page. It didn’t take long to realize that google was pretty good with food and dishes, translating most of them quite accurately.

The next stop was to go to Systran’s version. From their home page “SYSTRAN is the market leading provider of language translation software”. There they were, the results were amazing, with Omelette Jambon de Paris becoming Omelette boiled ham and Glace becoming Freeze. After a quick chat with a reseller of Systran’s boxed product, he told me that google translate used to be powered by systran server but was replaced a few month ago with their own translator engine, a definitely more sensible alternative.

The only thing these online tools should be used for is trying to understand quickly, and unreliably, the meaning of a text in a foreign language. I’m sure there is ways and areas where the translation must be near perfect, but still, nothing should be published without a human looking over it.