Language Translation option now that Google shut off translation?

[Pussycat Catnap]

As far as I can tell, you can't use Google translation for chat anymore in SL - without going to Google and handing over all the google+/facebook RL info, birth certificate, social security card, DNA-sample, etc info...

What solutions are there now, with that API shut off?

 

[GariGlitter]

Well, Americans might try doing what the rest of the world does, and learn another language?

[Pussycat Catnap]

I already speak 2 and a half, and smatterings of a third.

But I don't speak all 200+ of them out there...

 

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

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GariGlitter wrote:

Well, Americans might try doing what the rest of the world does, and learn another language?

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Gari - I'm American. I speak (read and type on SL) English, Salish, Spanish, (bad) Portuguese, and worse French. However, that doesn't help me with German, Japanese, Korean, or any of the other languages that people use on the grid.

How many languages do you know?

[GariGlitter]

One swallow doesn't make a summer.

Here is an extract of a list of countries with the percentage of the population who speak more than one language.

Luxembourg - 99%

Holland - 93%

Germany - 62%

France - 45%

USA - 26%

And, at the risk of alienating (see what I did there) even more people than I seem to have already today, the figures for the USA includes people with Spanish as their first language.

(I only have four languages in my linguistic rucksack, and wish I had more)

[Cinnamon Lohner]

With the latest viewer from LL, you have the option of using the Microsoft Bing translator as well as Google.  While you have to register with the Bing site, it was a minimal amount of information and there is no cost to using the AppID once you have it.  So far it seems to work pretty well for me.  Of course Microsoft is the evil empire so I'm sure this option is unacceptable to a number of people. :matte-motes-zipped:

--Cinn

[PeterCanessa Oh]

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GariGlitter wrote:

...Here is an extract of a list of countries with the percentage of the population who speak more than one language...

 

I notice the UK doesn't even make it on to the list.  I'm sure that but for immigrants for whom English is not their first language we wouldn't even register 1%

[Kenbro Utu]

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GariGlitter wrote:

Well, Americans might try doing what the rest of the world does, and learn another language?

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This is like telling someone who showed up outside a grocery store that has just closed, and asks directions to another store that is open, to learn how to grow his own vegetables and raise his own livestock.  Sure, its a viable plan for the long-term, but he will go hungry for quite a while before seeing the fruit of his labors. 

[GariGlitter]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

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GariGlitter wrote:

...Here is an extract of a list of countries with the percentage of the population who speak more than one language...

 

I notice the UK doesn't even make it on to the list.  I'm sure that but for immigrants for whom English is not their first language we wouldn't even register 1%

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I am ashamed to say that the UK only achieved 34%.

And that was mainly the Welsh and the Irish.

[GariGlitter]

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Kenbro Utu wrote:

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GariGlitter wrote:

Well, Americans might try doing what the rest of the world does, and learn another language?

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This is like telling someone who showed up outside a grocery store that has just closed, and asks directions to another store that is open, to learn how to grow his own vegetables and raise his own livestock.  Sure, its a viable plan for the long-term, but he will go hungry for quite a while before seeing the fruit of his labors. 

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I am not much in favor of short-term thinking. That guy deserved to go hungry.

[Peggy Paperdoll]

An interesting article that might shed some light on why Americans (and other countries where English is the spoken language) only have English as the language that they can speak and communicate with.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

And, though it's disputed to some degree, English is considered the universal language of the world.

http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/engunilang.php

Condemning people who's native language is English for not having fluency is other languages is missing the very valid point that they already know the language that is widely spoken and understood by the majority of the industrialized world.......at least among the educated of that world.  I used to speak (badly) German and could understand enough to keep up with a conversation for the most part.  I've lost that ability due to lack of use.  The same with Spanish.  When there's little or no need to converse in any language other than the language that you use then it's lost to most people.  My impression of people who tell me to learn another language because "Americans don't know any language other than their own" is that they are snobs with some complex about their language not being as widely spoken language in the educated world.  If there was a need to use a different language to survive in this world, the Americans would learn a different language.........there isn't so there's no incentive.  And that's perfectly okay.

 

 

[PeterCanessa Oh]

On the brighter side - and in complete contrast to monoglot me - my daughter is bilingual in English and Spanish and is learning French and Italian.  I occasionally try to get her to change Italian to Chinese but she likes pizza too much.

[Carl Thibodeaux]

If you need a translator.. IM me in game.

Metanomics Translator v2.1 is what i have and it works well for translating in different langagues. Simple screen attachment.

[Flandria Connolly]

Despite most translator stop after December 1th to my knowledge two at least are still working.
Free but poor Metanomics which stop envolve around end of 2008 and Q-Translator
https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/IOL-Q-Translator-57-Languages-Auto-Spellcheck-Dictionaries-Wiki-Search-Fake-Accents/641722

Apart from many features I won't enumerate here. It has a unique one that I never seen elsewhere.
It spellchecks before translating, for this reason it beats all others in quality of translation.
While others ever translate french sentence "Cet frase est plene d'ereurs" into gibberish "The Fraser of Plene ereurs." Q-Translator will perfectly translate this with "This sentence is full of errors"
If you ever notice how much people are doing typo errors in chat, I guess you will understand why this one is on my "must have" list of SL tools.

SL is a wonderfull world isnt' it ? :matte-motes-smitten:

[Pussycat Catnap]

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Cinnamon Lohner wrote:

Of course Microsoft is the evil empire so I'm sure this option is unacceptable to a number of people. :matte-motes-zipped:

--Cinn

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I gave up on MIcrosoft being the Evil Empire when I realized that Steve Jobs was actually Emporer Palpatine...

Gates is just an uncooperative Vadar... (he was once summoned to Job's office to get a scolding over windows looking like Mac... and his reply was something like "the way I see it, we both have this rich neighbor, Xerox Park, and I broke into the guy's house to steal his stereo, only to find out you'd stolen it an hour before me."

But thanks for the Bing heads up.

And both Apple and Micrsosoft will soon look like hood rats facing up against Pablo Escobar, aka Facespam.

 

[wiked Anton]

try buying a translator....or doesnt those work either? as i am not sure if they use Google or their own algorithm . I kow one langauage, and when i meet other with a different language, I struggle through, and then doent talk to them again. When I first came to sl I was a knight in the kings royal guard ( got there with fighting skills in dcs) and it was an Italian sim, my translator worked ok, but they are still a little confusing because a lot of languages dont use words that English made up for itself. English isn't a real language anyway, its a mongrel made up from so many other languages.And i have NO intention of learning 4 - 200 languages just to be in SL. I will learn one.

[Syo Emerald]

Why do we talk about americans being forced to learn a language? Most of the damn grid is ruled by their native language. By the way....google can't translate whole sentences, so you have to know a part of the language to get something usefull out of it.

[BothamFidor]

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Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

An interesting article that might shed some light on why Americans (and other countries where English is the spoken language) only have English as the language that they can speak and communicate with.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

And, though it's disputed to some degree, English is considered the universal language of the world.

http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/engunilang.php

Condemning people who's native language is English for not having fluency is other languages is missing the very valid point that they already know the language that is widely spoken and understood by the majority of the industrialized world.......at least among the educated of that world.  I used to speak (badly) German and could understand enough to keep up with a conversation for the most part.  I've lost that ability due to lack of use.  The same with Spanish.  When there's little or no need to converse in any language other than the language that you use then it's lost to most people.  My impression of people who tell me to learn another language because "Americans don't know any language other than their own" is that they are snobs with some complex about their language not being as widely spoken language in the educated world.  If there was a need to use a different language to survive in this world, the Americans would learn a different language.........there isn't so there's no incentive.  And that's perfectly okay.

 

 

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I have not had the time to read the literature, but does it take into account that it is only a tiny minority of US citizens who actually travel outside the USA and might come into contact with non-English speakers.

Excluding the armed forces of course.

[PeterCanessa Oh]

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BothamFidor wrote:

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Peggy Paperdoll wrote:

An interesting article that might shed some light on why Americans (and other countries where English is the spoken language) only have English as the language that they can speak and communicate with.

http://www2.ignatius.edu/faculty/turner/languages.htm

And, though it's disputed to some degree, English is considered the universal language of the world.

http://www.omniglot.com/language/articles/engunilang.php

Condemning people who's native language is English for not having fluency is other languages is missing the very valid point that they already know the language that is widely spoken and understood by the majority of the industrialized world.......at least among the educated of that world.  I used to speak (badly) German and could understand enough to keep up with a conversation for the most part.  I've lost that ability due to lack of use.  The same with Spanish.  When there's little or no need to converse in any language other than the language that you use then it's lost to most people.  My impression of people who tell me to learn another language because "Americans don't know any language other than their own" is that they are snobs with some complex about their language not being as widely spoken language in the educated world.  If there was a need to use a different language to survive in this world, the Americans would learn a different language.........there isn't so there's no incentive.  And that's perfectly okay.

 

 

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I have not had the time to read the literature, but does it take into account that it is only a tiny minority of US citizens who actually travel outside the USA and might come into contact with non-English speakers.

Excluding the armed forces of course.

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You mean there are no native Spanish, Aleut, Chinook, Yana, Pomo, Winnebago, Iroquian, Chitimacha, Cherokee or Shawnee speakers in the USA?  Let alone all the visitors from immigrants from almost everywhere ;-0

[BothamFidor]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

You mean there are no native Spanish, Aleut, Chinook, Yana, Pomo, Winnebago, Iroquian, Chitimacha, Cherokee or Shawnee speakers in the USA?  Let alone all the visitors from immigrants from almost everywhere ;-0

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Do all those not speak English as well then? Does US TV have a multiplicity of subtitle options on their broadcasts? Are there schools and Universities which use some other language than English?

Fidor

[PeterCanessa Oh]

Oh they probably do speak English, I wasn't being too serious.  Just pointing out that "non-English speakers" are all over the place, even in the USA, and even if you only count English as a second language.  I would hazard a guess that it would not be too difficult to find a Korean-speaker in any big US city, as another instance.  I would even think it would be fairly easy to find people from almost every African and Asian country who do not speak English on a daily basis.

[BothamFidor]

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PeterCanessa Oh wrote:

Oh they probably do speak English, I wasn't being too serious.  Just pointing out that "non-English speakers" are all over the place, even in the USA, and even if you only count English as a second language.  I would hazard a guess that it would not be too difficult to find a Korean-speaker in any big US city, as another instance.  I would even think it would be fairly easy to find people from almost every African and Asian country who do not speak English on a daily basis.

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I realise that you were being slightly flippant Peter, but my point was a serious one. USA citizens in the main (and on an entirely reasonably basis) do not expect to meet people who have no understanding of (or inclination to use) English at all, and consequently have no motivation to learn another language. Just about everywhere else in the world does, and does, to a greater extent.

If English becomes the global lingua franca (I bet the French gnash their teeth every time they see that phrase used!) then it won't be  because Shakespeare was a master of the turned word, but will be because the USA will expect - and perhaps insist - that it is the language to be used when interacting with them.

I am not making a value judgment by the way, just acknowledging the realities of the way in which the global community is inexorably developing.

Fidor

[PeterCanessa Oh]

I think the USA has very little to do with it as I doubt many people talk to Americans on a daily basis.  Only the USA thinks the USA is important in that sort of way.  When Australians talk to New Zealanders I don't think they're too fussed about some other former colony that almost speaks English.  An awful lot of those have been a big influence around a lot of the world though - add Canada, India, Hong Kong.  Even things like the (English speaking) Irish diaspora and the Welsh colony in Patagonia mean that even if English us not the dominant language in any particular area, you have a reasonable chance of finding someone that speaks it in every area.

My "favourite" example of English as a world language is the now almost ubiquitous 'lazer' (light).  It's not Hollywood, it's not Bollywood, it's just plain wrong, but enough people are comfortably using almost-English that they can hear 'laser', spell it for themselves and get it recognised around the world.  I can't think of any other language where such reverse-propogation could happen.

[Melita Magic]

BABELFISH free online translator.

 

Was always better than google's anyway. Google is connected to you know what organization...or didn't you notice they went to Libya? Of course they want to track us.

Anyway there are also in-SL huds to translate with.

Or we could all take language lessons.  ;p