I have been aware of online document translation for some time and always wondered about the quality. I imagined a test in which a native speaker would generate a translation that would be compared with what the software was able to accomplish (kind of Turing test). At the time a grad student from China was working with me, but we never completed the task before he left. Over the break my college freshman daughter was willing to give my idea a try.
Here is the source material (from an online newspaper). http://www.jornada.unam.mx/
Africa existe un mundo natural y otro sobrenatural; un mundo palpable que define a las culturas de ese continente. La exposici??n Africa, en el Museo Nacional de Antropolog??a, que ya ha sido visitada por 76 mil 554 personas desde que se inaugur?? en octubre, muestra en nueve salas la forma de vida y el pensamiento de los grupos ??tnicos africanos, y se ha convertido en el acto estelar de la cultura en esta temporada de asueto.
Kim Grabe – translation
In Africa there exists a natural world and a supernatural world, a world that defines the cultures of this continent. The exhibition Africa, in the National Museum of Anthropolgy that has already been visited by 76,554 people since its inauguration in October while in new rooms the life forms and thoughts of the africans have converted in the stellar of the culture in this temporary place. (Kim admits to having difficulty with the second sentence).
Here is the translation provided by Babelfish
(An identical translation was provided by Google – probably based on the same software)
In Africa it exists a natural world and another supernatural one; a concrete world that it defines to the cultures of that continent. Exhibition Africa, in Museum National of Anthropology, that already has been visited by 76 thousand 554 people since it was inaugurated in October, shows in nine rooms the form of life and the thought of the African ethnic groups, and it has become the stellar act of the culture in this season of break.
